This raspberry meyer lemon shrub is the perfect take for anyone who’s a little bit skeptical about the idea of using syrup-y, vinegar infused concoctions in their own kitchens. The lemon tempers the vinegar and makes for a bright, flavorful concentrate.
This month’s Food in Jars Mastery Challenge has been all about jellies and shrubs. We’ve been doing a lot of talking about jellies here on the blog, but not nearly as much about shrubs. Today, that changes.
This raspberry meyer lemon shrub is one of my favorites because the berries bring vivid color and flavor, and the lemons help moderate the sharpness of the vinegar.
This is an uncooked shrub and you start simply by muddling 6 ounces of raspberries and 8 ounces of granulated sugar together (I love my Masontops Pickle Packer for this task).
Once the berries are well smashed into the sugar, you zest 2 meyer lemons into the jar.
Cut open those lemons and squeeze the juice into the jar.
Then, in goes 1 cup of apple cider vinegar.
Stir it together and let it rest overnight in the refrigerator.
The next day, pull the jar out of the fridge. Give it a good stir to make sure that all the sugar has dissolved into the fruit juice.
Set a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and pour the macerating fruit and syrup through.
Use a silicone spatula and really work the seeds around in the sieve so that you get all the liquid into the bowl.
Such a great color!
Once the shrub is finished, it will keep in the fridge for 3-4 weeks. Pour it into sparkling water, drizzle it on fruit, use it to top ice cream, or make a vinaigrette out of it.
Great recipe perfect for the shipping summer months. Would you share where you purchased your measuring cup – I’ve given up trying to find one like this. FYI I did by the silicone measuring cups from oxo via QVC a smoking deal and I can’t say enough good things about these measuring cups. Amazon has them too so compare prices if interested.
I got that measuring cup at an thrift store ages ago. I have no idea where you might get a similar one.
It’s called a “triple pour” measuring cup. You can still find them online.
Thanks Kelly!
I, too, love these: I have three, and they are 2 quart Anchor Hocking “Batter Bowls”. I buy mine online @ Target or Walmart for around $8.00…Amazon is about $15.
I use them to mix my coffee in, for Batter! and for SO many things!! I love them. They have three different colored lids: White, Blue and Red, and two different styles of lids.
Oh, yum, this sounds wonderful! I think it’s going on my summer list – I really don’t care for iced tea, but you gotta have something besides plain water!
Can you make a shrub using a sugar substitute like Splenda?
Nope. Sugar substitutes don’t work in shrubs.
Love the still and moving pictures in this post!
I sometimes dump the strainer into a little jar of straight vinegar, and leave it a few days to really get every smidge of flavor out of the pulp. You wouldn’t want to drink it, but that vinegar makes lovely deglazing or vinaigrette material, and when you strain it that second time, it’s satisfying to be discarding just seeds with nothing more to give!
That is exactly what I did! 🙂
Yep, the residual fruit made a great raspberry dressing!
Do you have any tips or recommendations for reading on where I can learn what is and is not safe for canning, when it comes to shrubs?
I made a cranberry shrub this week, and the recipe had instructions for preserving. But a kumquat shrub recipe I have doesn’t say.
Do you have to use apple cider or will other vinegars work? I have a pomegranate vinager I found at Trader Joe’s…
I bet that pomegranate vinegar would be delicious in this shrub.
So excited to try this! One question: is 8 ounces of sugar the same as a cup of sugar? I read somewhere that it was 1 &1/8 c. Sugar
Consider it a heaping cup of sugar. It’s okay if you’re not perfectly precise with a recipe like this one.
Oops- one more question: could I use frozen raspberries, or only fresh?
You can definitely use frozen raspberries. They’re great for something like this since you’re going to squish them anyway.
Hello! When you made the black raspberry shrub, you let the fruit and sugar macerate in the fridge for a couple of days before straining and combining with vinegar. Did you skip that here just to streamline everything and get it made quickly? Do you find one way better than the other?
I really just didn’t feel like waiting, so I didn’t. The flavor difference is minor.