winter at home: a blood orange shrub

citrus and spice and everything nice

Cheers! I love a tasty drink for wintertime and shrubs are one of my favorite ways to enjoy a seasonal sip. My gateway shrub was the Apple-Picking Shrub from Huckle & Goose, my very favorite seasonal cookbook. Shrubs are a fruity, sweet vinegar that you can mix with soda water (or something harder) for a sour-sweet drink. Since brewing up my first apple shrub, I have also made pear and rhubarb shrubs, and I even have a recipe for a tomato shrub on my to-try list. (Will report back!)

Looking to embrace the season, I settled on blood oranges as inspiration for this month’s shrub. Blood oranges are such precious winter produce and I have been absolutely savoring them. I really dug into blood orange season this year, whipping up blood orange curd, making blood orange turnovers, and a fresh blood orange-avocado salad over the past few weeks. This shrub recipe is one more way to savor blood orange season and stretch it into February and beyond.

There are surprisingly few blood orange shrub recipes online, so I cobbled a few together when making a batch this month. I was inspired by the spices from Zaynab Issa’s recipe and then skipped any cooking, instead following the process from my beloved Huckle & Goose spiced apple shrub. In my experience, shrubs are forgiving so you can use this recipe as a loose framework.

Blood Orange Shrub

Ingredients:

• 3 blood oranges

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar

• knub of ginger, peeled and very roughly chopped (follow your heart here, if you’re a ginger lover use a big 2” chunk, if you’re a skeptic, a thumbtip is plenty)

• 1/2 cup cane or granulated sugar

• cinnamon stick

• cloves (5-10, choose your clove-i-ness level!)

1. Prepare your blood oranges. Wash your oranges thoroughly. Use a peeler to remove several strips of blood orange peel (with minimal white pith) and place them in a quart size mason jar. Thoroughly cut away all remaining peel and pith, compost. Place blood orange segments (avoiding seeds) directly in the pitcher of a blender.

2. Blend your liquids. Add apple cider vinegar and ginger to the blender along with blood oranges and blend well. Pour your ginger-y, orange-y vinegar into the mason jar, right on top of the orange peels. Use a rubber spatula to get every last delicious bit of juice/blood orange/ginger out of the blender.

3. Stir in sugar and spices. Add sugar and stir. Add cinnamon stick and cloves. Place your lid on the shrub mixture and give it a good shake.

4. Let jar sit at room temperature for up to 8 hours.

5. Refrigerate for 2-3 days. Before placing in the fridge, I always add masking tape and sharpie something like “Strain 2/24” as a reminder of when I am due to strain the mixture.

6. Strain into a wide-mouth pint jar. Using a mesh strainer, pour everything into a smaller jar. You can push the solids down, or set up your strainer to drain for a few minutes. Get every last drop of delicious shrub into your jar! Compost the leftover solids. (Again, masking tape + sharpie is your friend here for noting your brew date.)

7. Enjoy your shrub! Pour a splash of shrub over ice and top with seltzer water. You can keep the mason jar covered in the fridge for a few weeks (if it lasts).

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