The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

[Elaine Kessinger]

I needed a bit more space than is available here... so I wrote about my findings on my blog. View Here:

History Hallway Heartburn

We've all heard people say "make shrub" for hot weather. They're usually suggesting a beverage of fruit vinegar and sweetener diluted in water. From period recipe books, I show that beverages in that fashion were called "fruit vinegar water" in period and that a beverage called shrub was likely to include alcohol.

On my food blog, I posted just the recipes.

***As the weather warms up, enjoy your fruit vinegar water***

[GWagner]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

Nice, I was discussing this with my son other day. I mixed him up Natural Apple Vinegar (with the Mother,) Honey and Water to help with reflux. Works like a charm.

[Brian Boyenger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

I know this is a bit off topic but I've been thinking bout it, Mrs Kessinger do you have any traditional iced tea i know iced tea didn't really pick up until the 1870s But I was curious about some older recipes I hate modern garbage.

Thanks and sorry for the side track.

My Boyenger, I know this is your 1st post but one major requirement of the AC is signing your first & last name to each and every post. Best way to handle this is by setting up an auto signature.
Sincerely,
Beth Crabb, moderator

Sincerely
Brian Boyenger

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

I'll un-earth my sources for cold tea in a bit and get back to you.

[Brian Boyenger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

I'll un-earth my sources for cold tea in a bit and get back to you.

thanks a lot:D

back on the topic of shrub (not entirely sure why someone wants to drink vinegar)
i found a few old recipes from the 1870s(buckeye cooking and practical house keeping) seems shub has no alcohol least in this recipe does not

also could someone explain to me how popular was this drink what it was drunk for i.e. medicinal good to have a glass after a hard days work ect.



Sincerely
Brian Boyenger

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

Please go to my website and read the article I wrote, not just skim the recipes.

In short, my research shows that the beverage that didn't include alcohol was called "vinegar water" most often by people in the 1850s & 1860s.
Shrub recipes (and I did include "Buckeye Cookery, and Practical Housekeeping" in my research. It was compiled in 1876 for an 1877 publication, and thus beyond the scope of this forum.) that did not include alcohol were very rare... so rare that people of the 1850s and 1860s probably assumed a recipe called "shrub" would include alcohol.

Or at least that's what my research shows.

Why would someone want to drink vinegar.... it replaces potassium, magnesium, and sodium that assist the body to retain needed water expended during hot weather or active activities. With the sweetener added, the vinegar taste diminishes to tolerable.

How popular was vinegar water? ...VERY... check the numbers in the article.

P.S.- If you simply cannot and will not wrap your head around drinking vinegar, a lemonade (squeeze the lemons onto your sugar, dilute in water) is another common period beverage for hot weather.

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

A Few References to "cold tea":

The New Monthly Magazine, volume 9: 1818
Dr. Darwin used to recommend cold tea as a grateful drink to febrile patients; the good effect1! of which, in certain circumstances, I can fully attest. Grei n tea may prove very beneficial in the higher degrees of fever, especially pulmonary ...

Blackwood’s Magazine, volume 78: 1851
In China cold water is disliked, and considered unwholesome, and therefore tea is taken to quench the thirst, which it does best when unmixed — (a bottle of cold tea, without either milk or sugar, being, according to Mr Colquhouu of The Moor…

Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book, Catherine Esther Beecher, 1848
Egg Tea and Egg Coffee (very fine], Beat the yolk of an egg with a great spoonful of sugar, and put it to a tea-cup of cold tea or cold coffee. Add a half a tea-cup of water, cold in summer and boiling in winter, and as much cream. Then whip tho…

The Corner Cupboard; or Facts For Everybody, Robert Kemp Philp, 1859
Syrup of Tea. One pint of water, two pounds of sugar, an ounce of black tea; boil together for five minutes, or rather less; strain. A wineglassful to half a pint of cold water makes very good cold tea.

London Labor and the London Poor, Henry Mayhew 1861
My usual drink was cold tea, milk, ginger- beer, or coffee, whichever I could catch : the ginger-beer was more lively than the milk; but I believe I could do ... Cold tea was very refreshing ; but if I didn't take it with me in a bottle, it wasn't to be had.

[Hank Trent]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

Excellent research! Sounds like it's more of a reenactorism to assume that shrubs are predominantly non-alcoholic. That's good to know.

Have you also looked into the term "harvest drink"? That seems to be another name for vinegar, water and sweetening. For example: http://books.google.com/books?id=9V8...24&output=html But I don't know how common it was, or regional. Then there's switchel. Seems to be molasses and water, with or without vinegar, but mainly New England? Just trying to brainstorm for other names that might be used generically for vinegar, water, sweetening and/or other flavors, besides "shrub."

Why would someone want to drink vinegar.... it replaces potassium, magnesium, and sodium that assist the body to retain needed water expended during hot weather or active activities. With the sweetener added, the vinegar taste diminishes to tolerable.

No accounting for tastes--a couple hundred years from now, I'm sure people will be puzzled why we liked Coke and Pepsi. But I'm curious about the electrolytes mentioned. The amounts in modern apple cider vinegar, for example, are so low as to be almost useless: 174mg of potassium in a cup of vinegar at the USDA site, when the daily allowance is 4700 mg, and 12 mg magnesium when the RDA is 400 mg. And that's a cup of pure vinegar, which would make several glasses of vinegar water. What are you basing the electrolyte content of period-style vinegar on?

Edited to add: for example, this site: http://beta.active.com/running/Artic...ectrolytes-101 estimates 200-600 mg of potassium lost in an hour of hard exercise, which would mean drinking one to three cups of pure vinegar per hour. How many cups of vinegar water would one cup of vinegar be? Six or eight, maybe? Less? More? I suppose it might be possible to stay even with potassium loss at the lower end, but three cups of vinegar an hour? I dunno. And the 12 mg of sodium in a cup of vinegar from the USDA site wouldn't do much to replace the 800mg of sodium lost in an hour. I'd think blackstrap molasses would be the main source of potassium and magnesium, in a molasses-vinegar-water drink like switchel.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

According to the following site the fruits commonly found in summer drinks, both now and in the 1860s, are the highest in potassium and magnesium.

Based on a 100 g serving (100 g is a bit over 1/2 cup)
Cherries, sweet, raw Potassium: 222mg Magnesium: 11mg
Oranges, raw, all commercial varieties Potassium: 181mg Magnesium: 10mg
Raspberries, raw Potassium: 151mg Magnesium: 22mg

They do cover vinegar:
Vinegar, distilled Potassium: 2mg Magnesium: 1mg
Vinegar, cider Potassium: 73mg Magnesium: 5mg
Vinegar, red wine Potassium: 39mg Magnesium: 4mg

..and sweteners:
Honey Potassium: 52mg Magnesium: 2mg
Syrups, sorghum Potassium: 1000mg Magnesium: 100mg

Now, they don't mention how the electrolytes might be affected by the fruit being fermented in vinegar... but the potential is present for more than vinegar alone.

...and to be specific, I said "vinegar water" when I meant "fruit vinegar water."
There are no shrub recipes that didn't include fruit, so I didn't include "switchel", "haymaker's punch", "harvest drink", or the like in this survey, simply notated them for a future survey.

[Brian Boyenger]

Re: The beverage "shrub"...my latest research tangent

But I'm curious about the electrolytes mentioned. The amounts in modern apple cider vinegar, for example, are so low as to be almost useless: 174mg of potassium in a cup of vinegar at the USDA site, when the daily allowance is 4700 mg, and 12 mg magnesium when the RDA is 400 mg. And that's a cup of pure vinegar, which would make several glasses of vinegar water. What are you basing the electrolyte content of period-style vinegar on?

Edited to add: for example, this site: http://beta.active.com/running/Artic...ectrolytes-101 estimates 200-600 mg of potassium lost in an hour of hard exercise, which would mean drinking one to three cups of pure vinegar per hour. How many cups of vinegar water would one cup of vinegar be? Six or eight, maybe? Less? More? I suppose it might be possible to stay even with potassium loss at the lower end, but three cups of vinegar an hour? I dunno. And the 12 mg of sodium in a cup of vinegar from the USDA site wouldn't do much to replace the 800mg of sodium lost in an hour. I'd think blackstrap molasses would be the main source of potassium and magnesium, in a molasses-vinegar-water drink like switchel.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

one thing vinegar does is helps make minerals in other things like your food you eat more readily absorbable by the body so while vinegar in and of itself might not be super high in minerals where it really helps is by converting what you eat into more usable forms for your body.

In 1953, Dr. Hans Adolf Krebs won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for the Krebs Cycle Theory. Krebs' theory states that all nutrients consumed by the human body must be combined with acetic acid in order to enter the citric acid cycle. This cycle is critical for proper nutrient breakdown and utilization by the body. Vinegar contains between 4 and 6 percent acetic acid, depending on local regulations, which helps the body to process food into usable nutrients.

hope that helps