Do you watch High on the Hog? Bryant Terry was in one of their season two episodes with a shrub that got me thinking about these bevs again.
Over the years, a book about them by Michael Dietsch had been auto-recommended to me more than once as an online shopper, but I chose to judge that book by its cover. I know, boooo!
Anyway, a few weeks ago, a celery shrub recipe came up in one of my shrub searches. It wasn’t from Dietsch, but I immediately remembered his book and went straight to its table of contents where, lo and behold, I found his celery shrub.
Indifferent about having already posted a green drink last week, I was determined to taste test celery shrubs and make you read about veg again. I said what I said.
First up, a celery shrub recipe I couldn’t deny as an SF Bay Area local, despite its inclusion of fennel (barf). It was published on the site of a meal kit delivery service back home that I’ve been meaning to get with.
Then it happened. My reflexes finally beat Epicurious’ “Kitchen’s Closed” middle finger blocker for the frugal who won’t pay for unlimited content. With my new pdf of their republished celery shrub from Dietch’s book, I had to celebrate somehow.
I mixed six drinks, each shrub with one of three waters: club, seltzer, and tonic water. I used apple cider vinegar in both shrub syrups and, in the Dietsch shrub, cane sugar.
- Celery
- Lemon
- Ginger
- Black peppercorns
- Fennel seeds
- Honey
- Vinegar
Equipment: blender, strainer, funnel, bottle
Me: The fennel was actually more pleasant than problematic. The celery was too far in the background of the club one. The spices were more mellow in the one with seltzer. The sour of the tonic version had me sucking in my cheeks.
GJ: What else is in this? Oh, fennel. That’s what I was tasting. Same flavor all around whether it was club or seltzer, but the seltzer was flatter like in the green lemonade. The tonic was more citrus-y but with a bitter aftertaste.
Celery Shrub by Michael Dietsch
- Celery
- Sugar
- Vinegar
Me: I could’ve sworn the club one was tonic water w/o the quinine. The seltzer mix let me taste the celery and vinegar separately then together. The tonic one had a nice tang underneath the only beer-like head among any of the drinks.
GJ: I didn’t think I’d be into any of these because of the smell, but I liked Dietsch’s shrub better and this club one the best of all of them. It had more of a punch to it I couldn’t taste in the other five.
Another Round? Weekly Dietsch shrubs for GJ, but he’ll only have the Sunbasket shrubs on special occasions. I’ll take the Sunbasket shrub with club soda on special occasions and the other five weekly.