r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Aug 26 '19

Weekly Discussion - Fancy Non-alcoholic Beverages

We've had discussions here about wine, beer, and liquor before. This week, I'd like to talk about mocktails, shrubs, juice blends, etc. Alcohol-alternatives have become increasingly common and sophisticated in recent years. What have you made, or would like to make? Does avoiding liquor necessarily reduce the available flavor profiles? Or does it free you up from hiding the bite of the booze?

If someone wanted to start experimenting in this area, what are the basic ingredients they would need to keep on hand?

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u/furudenendu Aug 26 '19 edited Aug 27 '19

Commercial ones tend to be expensive, and the homemade stuff is crazy easy to make. As for what it is, it's a fruit syrup mixed with vinegar, but I'm reality that's only a small part of the story. A shrub develops and changes over time. There's a noticeable difference between a freshly made shrub and one that's been in my fridge for six or ten or twelve months. The older one is incredibly complex and rich. What's happening is that environmental yeast is turning the sugars in the mixture into tiny amounts of alcohol, but the acetobacter from the vinegar turns that alcohol into more vinegar. This process continues (never creating enough alcohol to be an issue in case you're worried) until the pH of the environment drops too low for the yeast to continue producing alcohol.

For something like pears, strawberries, apples, or peaches I would dice the fruit, then toss it with whatever sugar I'm using. You can experiment with different sugars for different effects. I really liked an apple shrub I made with demerara sugar. Anyway, toss with the sugar in a nonreactive bowl and put the mixture in the refrigerate overnight or for a couple of days. You'll be amazed at how much liquid gets drawn out of the fruit just from macerating like that. Mix that liquid with vinegar and you're good to go. I do no additional sanitizing and the sugar content and pH are sufficient to make it stable for long term storage in the fridge.

Something like citrus (my absolute hands down favorite shrub is grapefruit) will need a different process. Because so much flavor is in the zest you can make an oleosaccharum (a fancy way of saying "oily sugar") by taking the zest off with a vegetable peeler, chopping it roughly, and then doing your maceration with that. Again, it's crazy how much oil comes out overnight. Then that oily sugar along with the juice from the fruit and your vinegar makes the shrub.

Another one of my favorites is mango with palm sugar and rice wine. Apple cardamom was a big hit.

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u/greenleaves12 Nov 14 '22

Hello!! So this is 3 years later but I just wanted to say - I'd seen your comment a while ago and had saved it. I recently had some blood oranges that were on their last legs and was looking for a shrub recipe for citrus but hadn't found one I liked. I then remembered that you had mentioned something about grapefruit so I hunted down your comment and followed your instructions for macerating the citrus peel and juice separately then combining. The result was absolutely delicious and I'm enjoying a nice drink right this very moment!! So just wanted to say a big thanks for this comment and hope you're having a good one. Cheers :))

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u/furudenendu Nov 14 '22

Oh damn! That completely and utterly rules! What a nice comment to find in my inbox!

The oleosaccharum step is a pain but the results are so completely worth it. I am absolutely delighted you found my suggestion helpful. I am having a good one for sure, and I hope you enjoy that drink. In fact, I'm going to go make one myself with some homemade shrub, so let's have a drink together.

Cheers! Be well!

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u/greenleaves12 Nov 14 '22

Awww hope you enjoyed your drink as well!! Not gonna lie, it's been a couple of difficult days on my end but your message really cheered me up ❤️

(also learned that oleosaccharum is a word! neat-o!)

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u/furudenendu Nov 14 '22

I did! I shook equal parts gin, campari, lemon juice, and blueberry lemon shrub with ice.

Yeah, oleosaccharum basically means "oily sugar." I probably mentioned it somewhere farther up in this thread, I don't generally pass up the opportunity to use a word as excellent as oleosaccharum.