Blood oranges are arguably the most beautiful citrus fruit, inside and out, and when paired with balsamic vinegar in a sweet-tart shrub they really shine. You may have noticed that I am a huge fan of shrub making and I compiled everything I know into a FREE email course just for my Wildflowers! Get in here!
Blood Orange Balsamic Shrub is the second shrub I have crafted with balsamic vinegar. The other recipes I have shared use apple cider vinegar and that is a much more mild tasting vinegar. Balsamic is bold both in flavor and in color and when added with blood oranges and plain white sugar it creates a strong but delicious shrub. This mixes so, so well with unflavored sparkling water and in a cocktail with bourbon.
So all this shrub talk probably has you wondering what the buzz is about and why you should be making shrubs in mason jars, like, yesterday. I wanted to share my favorite mixer tips and techniques with you so I created a simple, fun, and totally FREE email course to teach you everything I know about making shrubs. Sign up for the week’s worth of easy to read emails that explain how to make all kinds of shrubs, from whatever is in your fridge, to suit your tastes and make these sweet-tart syrups. Grab it here!
The quantities below are tiny, I admit but when I was trying this out I didn’t want to sacrifice more than one blood orange on a trial shrub. I’m such a produce hoarder. Feel free to increase the quantities. Go on and be crazy and use 2 blood oranges, Wildflowers 😉
You need:
1 blood orange, peeled and sections sliced into halves or thirds, that equals about ½ cup.
½ cup white sugar
1 cup good quality balsamic vinegar
Add the fruit to a clean mason jar or another clean glass vessel with a lid.
Add the sugar and if time allows, let the sugar and fruit sit for up to 24 hours. I’d be fibbing if I said I always make time for this and with a juicy fruit like a blood orange it isn’t entirely necessary but it can help a bit pulling the juice from the fruit.
Add the vinegar and perhaps muddle with a wooden spoon and stir to incorporate the sugar.
Lid and let the shrub sit on your counter for up to a week. The flavors will blend and develop into a bold and delicious shrub.
Strain using either a fine mesh sieve, a colander with small holes, or a funnel and a cheesecloth into a clean glass vessel. Store in the refrigerator.
Blood Orange Shrub + Whiskey Cocktail
1 part Blood Orange Balsamic Shrub
1 part whiskey (I like Bulleit Bourbon, as recommended by a dear friend)
3 parts sparkling water
ice
Served nicely in a wide mouth mason jar. What, you don’t have a stash of jars on hand? You can grab some from Amazon by clicking the affiliate photo link below!
If those beautiful blood oranges have convinced you to try more shrubs, I can’t encourage you enough to try my new and completely free e-course! In a week’s worth of emails, I share everything I know about shrubs to help you turn nearly any fruit, in even tiny quantities, into a sweet-tart syrup that is as pretty sitting on the counter as it is delicious served in a beverage or as an ingredient. Sign up here!
Wildflowers, I have to tell you something. I’m a teacher, some of you may know this already, and this school year I decided to take the year off to stay home with my kids that are 2 and 4 years old. I have been working on writing blog posts, creating workshops, and generally putting all this extra “teacher energy” in the blog because while I LOVE being home with my babies, I love teaching and I miss it. With all the great feedback I have had from these fun shrubs recipe blog posts, the comments I have had on lifestreams in the Grow Like a Wildflower Facebook group, I decided to create a whole course that will teach you, step by step, the super-simple preserves, and techniques to make homemade cocktail mixers. The course is called Wildflower Mixology and I’m so excited about it!
Wildflower Mixology is a way for a busy, modern homemaker to transform their hostess skills from uninspired and stressed to at ease, farmer’s market fresh, and fun. It is a full-fledged course that teaches you how to make bounces, infused syrups, shrubs and more in 15 professionally edited (as in, not be me lol!) videos. That’s the Bloody Mary Shrub in the youtube thumbnail below…and you are NOT going to find that recipe anywhere else, Wildflower! I can promise you that!
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