Tom Macy's Syrup, Shrub, Infusions, and Other Such Recipes Flashcards
Black Pepper Syrup
This is just simple syrup infused with black pepper. If you already have some simple syrup on hand you can use that. Heat up 1 1/2 cups - it doesn’t have to be boiling, just hot - and add the pepper.
1 cup hot water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons freshly-ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves. Let sit for 24 hours. Strain through fine mesh strainer. Refrigerate.
Cane Syrup
Cane syrup is a rich simple syrup made with evaporated cane sugar aka “raw”, “pure” or “organic” cane sugar, as they’re often labeled. Basically, you want a sugar with a light golden color and a faint molasses flavor. They’re a midpoint between plain white sugar and rich, dark demerara and turbinado sugars - not to be confused with dark or light brown sugars, which are best left for baking. Cane syrup is a common ingredient in rum and tiki cocktails. It’s a good option for adding a little richness and body to a cocktail without flavors that are too heavy.
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
½ cup water
Combine in a small pot over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
Celery Syrup
Celery Syrup
There are two methods for making this syrup. A juicer is faster and more precise, but if you don’t have one, a blender works too.
With a Juice Extractor
1 cup celery juice - about 6-7 stalks
½ cup sugar
Run the celery stalks through the juicer and strain, you’ll have about 1 cup of juice. Add ½ cup of sugar for every cup of juice. Briskly stir until sugar is dissolved, this will take a couple minutes. Do not put over heat or you’ll risk losing some of those fresh green flavors. Refrigerate.
With a Blender
6 celery stalks
½ cup sugar
Finely slice the celery and place in the blender. Add the sugar. Blend for 1-2 minutes, or until celery is liquefied. If some sugar is still undissolved, let the mixture sit for a few minutes until it is. Strain out the solids, which will take a few minutes. Refrigerate.
Cinnamon Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
10-12 cinnamon sticks, or ¼ cup crushed cinnamon sticks (about 5 sticks) or bark
Combine sugar and water in a pot over medium heat and stir until dissolved (if you stop here you have simple syrup).
Add the cinnamon sticks/bark, increase heat and bring to a boil.
Let it boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat and cover. Don’t let it continue to boil too much water will evaporate and throw off the balance.
Allow the mixture to steep off heat for at least 4 hours, but ideally 12 hours/overnight. The longer it sits the stronger it’ll be.
If using crushed sticks/bark you can strain them out before storing, if using cinnamon sticks leave them in. Store in the refrigerator. This will keep for several months.
Demerara Syrup
Demerara Syrup
Demerara syrup is a simple syrup made with demerara sugar, which is a less processed style. I like it in Old Fashioneds because it adds some caramelized molasses notes that pair nicely with the whiskey. It also gives the cocktail a richer mouth-feel because it has a 2:1 sugar to water ratio, also called a rich syrup.
Demerara sugar can be found the baking aisle of most supermarkets. You can also use turbinado sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw), muscovado sugar, or dark brown sugar in this recipe.
1 cup demerara sugar
½ cup water
Combine in a small pot over medium-low heat (or microwave for 1 minute, or so) and stir until dissolved. Do not boil.
Honey Syrup
Honey Syrup
Honey needs to be diluted with some water to make a”honey syrup” to allow it to fully integrate into a cocktail and prevent it from clumping. It is made just like simple syrup. Some prefer 2 parts honey to 1 part water. I find equal parts sufficient.
1 part honey
1 part warm water
Combine and stir until fully mixed. No need to put it on the stove, it will mix on its own. Bottle and refrigerate. Will keep for at least a week or two.
Ginger Syrup
Recipes -
- With a Blender
2 cups finely chopped ginger root - 2-3 pieces
1 cup water
about 2 cup sugar
Combine the ginger and water in a blender and blend for about a minute until the ginger is a pulp.
Strain, pressing out as much liquid as you can. This is your ginger juice.
For every cup of ginger juice, add 2 cups sugar.
Stir until dissolved. Use the stove or microwave to speed this it up, if necessary. Bottle and refrigerate.
- With a Juice Extractor
1 cup ginger juice - need 3-4 pieces of ginger root
2 cups sugar
Run the ginger through the juice extractor. Roughly chopping it into smaller pieces will make this a bit easier on the machine.
Strain the juice.
Combine the sugar and ginger juice in a small pot over medium-low heat, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Store in refrigerator
Grenadine
Homemade Grenadine
I’d avoid the bottles of neon red goo, if you can. Grenadine is pretty darn easy to make. Though many of the higher end options available are very solid as well.
1 cup pomegranate juice - POM Wonderful is perfectly fine.
1 cup sugar
1 oz Pomegranate Molasses
3-4 orange peels
In a small pot over low heat combine the sugar and pomegranate juice and stir until dissolved.
Add the pomegranate molasses. Express the oils from the orange peels into the mixture and discard the peels. Stir. Refrigerate.
Lavender Syrup
1 cup of fresh lavender sprigs or 1/2 cup dried lavender buds
2 cups boiling water
Sugar (about 1¾ cups)
Steep the lavender in the water for 30 minutes. Strain out the lavender and add equal parts sugar to water - it will be slightly less than 2 cups because some will have been absorbed - and stir until dissolved. Refrigerate.
Orgeat
Homemade Orgeat
Making orgeat from scratch is a cocktail nerd rite of passage. It’s basically making almond milk - which is water blended with blanched almonds - and then adding sugar and some other flavors. I liked to the toast the almonds to maximize flavor. The almond extract and orange flower water supply the marzipan/floral note which can be adjusted to taste. This is how I like it, but you can use more, less, or none at all. You can also use rose water in place of orange flower water.
2 cups sliced, slivered or chopped blanched almonds
2 cups water
2 cups sugar (about)
1 teaspoon almond extract - or to taste
1 teaspoon orange flower water - or to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Spread almonds evenly on a baking sheet.
Roast for 5 minutes, or until fragrant. You can also toast them in a pan on the stove.
Put the almonds and water in a blender and blend for on high for 1-2 minutes until the almonds are ground into meal-like consistency.
Strain through cheesecloth, a mesh chinois, or a coffee filter pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. Make sure there is no sediment. This is your almond milk, it should yield about 1 cup.
In a small pot, combine the almond milk and twice as much sugar, which will be about 2 cups, over low/medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.
Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract and orange flower water.
Refrigerate.
Raspberry Syrup
1 cup raspberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
In a small pot or bowl crush the raspberries with a muddler.
Add the sugar and water and stir over very low heat to dissolve the sugar. DO NOT BOIL.
Once the sugar is mostly dissolved, remove from heat.
Let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes, then stir to dissolve any remaining sugar.
Run the syrup through a chinois to remove the seeds and pulp.
Refrigerate; will keep for about 1 month.
Rosemary Syrup
6-8 rosemary sprigs
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar (roughly)
Mince the rosemary sprigs, don’t worry about taking the needles off the stem.
In a measuring cup, combine the rosemary and boiling water, or bring them to a boil in a pot together and remove from heat.
Let the rosemary steep for 45 minutes to an hour, as if you are making rosemary tea.
Strain out the rosemary and add equal parts sugar to water. It’ll be a little under a cup.
Stir until dissolved. Feel free to heat syrup slightly, either on the stove on in the microwave, speed this last step up.
Simple Syrup and Rich Simple Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup hot water
In a measuring cup, combine the sugar and water. Stir until dissolved. Refrigerate in a glass container.
Rich simple syrup contains twice as much sugar, so that’s two parts sugar to one part water. It is about 1 1/2 times as sweet as traditional equal parts 1:1 simple syrup, and naturally much thicker.
Because of the added sugar, you have to heat it over the stove to get the sugar to fully dissolve.
Recipe:
2 cups white sugar
1 cup hot water
Combine in a pot or saucepan over low heat. Stir until dissolved.
Rich syrups are great for adding texture and body to a cocktail, particularly in stirred, spirit-forward drinks. For example, I use a rich syrup made with demerara sugar in my Old Fashioned.
But they can be applied to any drink. Just remember that when using a rich simple syrup, you’ll use less of it and the cocktail will be more concentrated. Generally, about a ½ ounce of rich simple syrup is equal to ¾ ounces traditional simple syrup.
Strawberry Syrup
This indispensable syrup is made similarly to raspberry syrup. It’s a rich 2:1 syrup, but the added juice you’ll get from the fruit brings it closer to 1:1. It’s best to dissolve the sugar into the water first, at least partially, to ensure the syrup has proper balance. As you’ll see in the instructions, you can either muddle the strawberries or use a blender/immersion blender to combine them with the sugar/water. I prefer muddling for smaller batches because there’s less clean up and blenders give syrups a foamy head which I don’t find as aesthetically alluring, but tastes fine. For bigger batches, a blender is definitely the way to go. If you use the stove be sure not to heat the strawberries! You want fresh strawberry flavor, not cooked.
1 cup sugar
1 cup strawberries, topped and halved
1/2 cup hot water
Combine the sugar and water in a small container and stir until dissolved, or mostly. You can use the microwave or the stove to expedite the process, but if you do, let the syrup cool some before adding the strawberries.
Muddle the strawberries directly into the syrup (or in a separate vessel then pour the syrup over) or blend with an immersion blender/kitchen blender for 5-10 seconds.
Let the mixture sit for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure all the sugar is dissolved.
Strain out the solids and refrigerate.
Pineapple Syrup
2 cups of fresh pineapple cubes
2 cups sugar
In a mixing bowl stir the sugar and pineapple together so the cubes are entirely coated. Cover and let sit for at least 3 hours, but the longer the better. When finished sugar should be all or mostly dissolved and the mixture should be soupy.
Blend with an immersion blender - or transfer and blend in a blender/food processor - until smooth.
Strain with a mesh strainer, ideally one that’s not too fine. This last step is fairly tedious because the mixture will be very thick. You’ll need to frequently scrape the bottom of the strainer with a spoon to keep it flowing. Keep at it!
Note: 1 whole pineapple usually gets you around 4 cups, or 1 quart, of cubes. If you don’t need that much you can opt for those pre-cut containers of pineapple you find at many supermarkets.
