If cordial is the sweet side of citrus, this mandarin shrub drinking vinegar is its sharper, slightly more grown-up cousin.
I had plenty of mandarins to play with and was looking for yet another way to make the most of them. I’ve juiced them, preserved them, jammed them and used the zest — so why not drink them? Enter the shrub, otherwise known as a drinking vinegar.
Despite the rather peculiar name, a shrub is wonderfully simple. At its heart, it’s fruit + sugar + vinegar, creating a concentrated sweet-and-sour syrup that can be diluted with sparkling water or tonic, mixed into cocktails, or even sneaked into salad dressings and marinades.
And no, this particular shrub isn’t fermented (although there is a version of a shrub that can be). We’re adding the vinegar ourselves and keeping the finished shrub refrigerated.
Shrub vs Cordial
If you’re wondering why you’d bother making a shrub when you could simply make mandarin cordial, that’s a fair question. Particularly because this isn’t a sugar-free alternative. My recipe contains a cup of sugar, and adding vinegar doesn’t magically make that sugar disappear. The difference is really in the flavour.
Where a cordial tends to be predominantly sweet and fruity, a shrub has another dimension. The vinegar cuts through the sweetness and gives it a sharp, tangy edge.
It’s also a concentrate, so you don’t drink it by the glassful. A teaspoon or two can be enough to flavour an entire glass of sparkling water.
If you don’t have enough mandarins, use a combination of orange and mandarin segments. Simply make up 2 cups of citrus fruit in total. And the shrub idea extends well beyond citrus. Berries, plums, peaches, apples and plenty of other seasonal fruits can be turned into drinking vinegars.
… and what sort of vinegar? A very good question. I would go with apple cider vinegar or a white wine vinegar (stay away from malt as it adds another flavour dimension of its own).
Is It Shelf-Stable?
Not this recipe. Yes, it contains both sugar and vinegar, but I’m not going to assume that makes my particular homemade formulation safe to bottle and leave in the pantry. This is a cold-process refrigerated shrub, not a tested water-bath canning recipe.
Once strained and bottled, it goes into the fridge.
Published recommendations for refrigerated shrubs actually vary considerably — from around a month to several months depending on the formulation and method. For a homemade batch, I prefer the conservative approach: make manageable quantities, keep them refrigerated and use them while they’re at their best. Discard the shrub if you notice mould, unexpected fermentation or bubbling, unusual cloudiness or an off smell.
How to Use Mandarin Shrub
This is a concentrate, not something I’d recommend pouring yourself a tumbler of! Start with 1–2 teaspoons of mandarin shrub and top with sparkling water or tonic water.
It’s not just for drinking. You’ve essentially made a sweet, fruity vinegar concentrate, and that opens up plenty of possibilities in the kitchen.
- Try a splash in a vinaigrette with olive oil and mustard.
- Brush a little over chicken before cooking.
- Add it to a marinade.
- Use it to provide sweetness and acidity in a sauce or glaze.
And what about that leftover mandarin pulp? If there’s one thing I dislike more than running out of mandarins, it’s throwing perfectly useful mandarins away. Before you throw it in the compost, taste it. It’s sweet, tangy and citrusy. And it may still have another job to do! Try stirring a little through Greek yoghurt, adding it to porridge, blending it into a dressing, or using it as the beginning of a glaze.
Mandarin & Orange Shrub Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups peeled mandarin segments (or orange/mandarin combo), roughly chopped
- Zest of 1–2 mandarins
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
Method
- Peel your mandarins and/or oranges and remove as much of the stringy white pith as reasonably practical.
- Remove the pips where you see them. The occasional whole pip isn’t the end of the world, but crushed citrus seeds can contribute bitterness.
- Roughly chop the segments.
- Wash the fruit then zest one or two mandarins and/or oranges, taking just the coloured outer layer rather than the bitter white pith underneath.
- Put the citrus flesh and zest into a clean bowl and add the sugar. Stir everything together and give the fruit a light mash.
- Cover and refrigerate for 24–48 hours. In this cold press process the sugar draws liquid from the fruit and gradually creates a beautifully fragrant mandarin syrup, extracting the fruit flavour without cooking it.
- Add 1 cup apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. Stir thoroughly, cover and return it to the fridge for another 24 hours or longer.
- Pour everything through a fine sieve into a clean jug.
- Pour the finished shrub into a clean glass bottle or jar and refrigerate.
Don’t Judge It Immediately!
If you taste your shrub immediately after adding the vinegar, you may wonder what on earth you’ve created. Give it time.
As it rests in the fridge, those initially distinct flavours of mandarin, sugar and vinegar begin to mingle and mellow. Cold-process shrubs are often rested before drinking for exactly this reason. I’d give it at least a few days before making any major adjustments.
Cheers to that!
