wellpreserved.ca

There are two keys to making burned orange bitters: Remove the zest before charring (you’ll see that we add it to the bottom of the jar). The highest-proof neutral-grain (i.e. minimal flavour) booze we can easily get in Ontario is a 124-proof (62%) un-aged white rum that we use for a lot of our bitters. Burned Orange Bitters used for cocktails, baking or adding a punch of citrus to anything 1.5-2 cups high proof neutral grain alcohol (as described above). If you remove the pith, place it in a bowl and press on it to remove any additional flavor and add that back to the jar.

Over the Holidays we had excess citrus – limes that weren’t added to cocktails, a few lemons that were just a few too many and some mandarin oranges because it’s a Christmas tradition I find very difficult to give up on. The optimal way to dry citrus is to slice it as evenly as possible, remove visible seeds (we left ours in as I was lazy) and put it in the dehydrator until the flesh is dried and fragile (i.e. crunchy). * If you want to add them to water (i.e. for drinking), rehydrate them in a small bit of boiling water to make a lemon concentrate that could be added to a larger portion of water and chilled to serve. If you’re looking to chop them small when cooking, I recommend adding them to what you’re cooking first (they will absorb moisture and soften) before cutting into the dried ones as they’ll mostly shatter and send lemon shrapnel across your kitchen.

Bite-sized pieces of lime (skin and all) are fermented and aged for several weeks or months (these aged for almost two months over the winter). (I used a mix that I had, Tigress has a recipe to make it from scratch) Squeeze the juice of 3 limes and put them on the side. Cut the lime into small pieces (I cut them in quarters and then cut each wedge into 4 or 5 pieces) Optional: toast the tumeric, hot pepper and garam masala by gently heating it and stirring for a few minutes in a frying pan over medium-high heat (stir constantly to prevent burning) Mix the lime juice, lime pieces and all other ingredients in a large mason jar or other covered container. In order to prevent this, I try a piece after 4 or 5 weeks and then taste it every few days until I’m happy with the results (often between week 5-7 but trust your tastebuds! )

This shrub will last for weeks – or longer – in the fridge and is another example of how easy preserving is (that’s me cheering you on to get started! ) I start by making a concentrate which you can drink straight as a digestif, watered down with still or sparking water, added to a cocktail, used to enhance a salad dressing or even added to tea or warmed cider for a campfire warmer. The other secret to making this drink explode with flavour is that we add apples to the cider vinegar to infuse the vinegar with even more apply goodness. This makes the drink less like sweet vinegar and rounds out the acid by adding the natural sweetness from the fresh fruit.