It is that magical time of year when my neighbor hands me a big tub of concord grapes from his yard. So what to do with them all you may ask? Why make a shrubb. I will leave it up to you to go search the intertubes for information regarding the history and whatnot of shrubb. However, for the sake of us all being on the same page I will summarize. In order to preserve the fruit, we are mixing it with vinegar. The end result is something that is both sweet and tart and filled with the fresh fruit flavors.
I am using a process that comes from somewhere, I think Alcademics, where Neyah White explains the process for making the cold shrubb. Essentially I am using equal parts berries to sugar to vinegar, in this case, 2 cups of grapes to 2 cups of sugar to 2 cups of apple cider vinegar.
First I squished each grape as I placed it into the jar, then I addeded the sugar and muddled things up a bit. the end result is something that looks like this.
I put this in the cupboard to sit for around five hours. After that time was up I added in my 2 cups of apple cider vinegar and shook it all up pretty well to get all of the sugar dissolved. The end result is something that looks like this
This will now hang out in a cool dark place for the rest of the week with the occasional shake to make sure that everything is all dissolved.
In the meantime, I still have some additional concord grapes, so I opted to have a cobbler of sorts.
Concord Grape Cobbler
5 Concord Grapes + additional for garnish
2 oz Pyrat XO Rum
1/2 oz lime juice
1/4 oz Cinnamon syrup
1/4 oz Ginger syrup
2 dashes of angostura
Muddle the grapes with the lime juice. Add the remaining ingredients along with some ice and shake. Double strain into a collins glass filled with fresh ice and any reserved grapes. Top with soda water and enjoy.
