Stephanie’s Rhubarb Shrub

Homesteading author Stephanie Thurow generously shared her delicious Rhubarb Shrub recipe with us. It forms the base for our Rhubarb Gin Fizz cocktail.

Yield: 2-3 cups finished shrub
Ingredients
1.5 cups rhubarb, chopped (fresh or frozen) – discard green leaves, as they are poisonous.
1.5 cups white granulated sugar
Days later: 1.5 cups organic apple cider vinegar (or other drinking vinegar of choice).

Directions:
Scrub rhubarb clean, chop and combine with sugar in a clean pint canning jar. Shake jar to mix
sugar and rhubarb well. Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean dampened towel and apply the
canning jar lid and tightly screw on the ring. Store the jar at room temperature, out of direct
sunlight and allow the mixture to macerate over a couple days, until a thick syrup is made. A few
times per day, vigorously shake the mixture to speed up the process (or you can use a clean
spoon to stir well).
After 2-3 days, once the sugar has dissolved and a syrup is made, use a fine mesh strainer to
strain out the solids, reserving the syrup in a measuring cup. Use the back of a spoon to push out
any excess syrup. Once strained, measure the amount of syrup that was collected and add that
same amount of vinegar to the syrup (it will be 1-1.5 cups of vinegar), stir well to mix. Store in a
clean airtight jar and refrigerate. Enjoy within a few months for best flavor.

To serve
Mix about a shot of the shrub mixture with water, or carbonated water. Serve over ice. Shrubs
also make delicious and unique cocktail mixers.
Side notes
You can also use brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup or other sugar alternative in place of
white granulated sugar.
This method of shrub making can be applied to any fruits and herb combinations. Strawberry
shrub is my all-time favorite.
Don’t toss the strained-out fruit solids! They are delicious mixed into plain yogurt or oatmeal or
blended into a smoothie.
This recipe was adapted from WECK Small-Batch Preserving (2018) with permission from
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.