I've been really into lemon shake-ups this summer. They're simple and delicious -- but you've really got to shake them. The ice isn't optional, and the sugar can't be cut back too much.
| Ingredients | Step |
|---|---|
| ice cubes ½ lemon, washed scant ¼ c. sugar 6 oz. water |
Place ice in container with lid. Squeeze lemon into it, then drop in rind. Add sugar and a splash of water. Shake! Pour into glass and top with water to taste. |
This beautifully pink recipe works particularly well in late May/early June, when there are still some end-of-season lemons and the raspberry bushes are laden with harvest. I wouldn't recommend sourcing this recipe in a grocery store trip; it'd probably be both excessively expensive and not nearly as tasty as when a neighborhood/friend group is drowning in lemons and raspberries.
If you start with 1¾ c. fresh-squeezed lemon juice (5-12 lemons), you will get 7 cups of lemonade. Alternative ratios are below recipe.
| Ingredients | Step |
|---|---|
| lemons that will produce 1¾ c. juice (5-12) | Roll lemons. Then squeeze into a large liquid measuring cup until you have 1¾ c. lemon juice. (If you have an alternate amount of juice, scale everything else accordingly — see ratio below recipe.) |
| 2 c. raspberries (8 oz., or half a metal camping bowl) ½ c. lemon juice |
Puree in blender, then strain through a sieve into a bowl. Discard solids (the seeds). |
| 1¼ c. lemon juice 1 c. white sugar 5 c. water raspberry-lemon juice |
Combine in a pitcher that can hold at least 8 cups. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Taste and adjust as needed (remembering there will be ice). |
| Serve over ice, possibly with a sprig of mint. Sugar rims are nice; salt rims are not (even after yardwork). |
The scaling ratio is: For each ¼ c. lemon juice, use ¼ c. raspberries, ⅛ c. sugar, and ⅔-¾ c. water. Each root unit makes a single serving (8 oz. lemonade plus ice yields a 12-16 oz. serving).
Source: Once Upon a Chef
A higher quality Hershey's syrup equivalent. Best to use at room temperature.
Great in egg creams (couple tablespoons of syrup in a cup, milk to halfway, seltzer to finish it).
| Ingredients | Step |
|---|---|
| 3/4 c. white sugar 1/4 t. kosher salt 1/2 c. water |
Combine in small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, whisking. |
| 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed | Add cocoa powder while whisking. Whisk until smooth. |
| 1 oz. (3 T) unsweetened chocolate, chopped | Remove from heat. Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted. |
| 1 t. vanilla | Whisk in. |
| Transfer to jar. Refrigerate. |
Source: Genevieve Ko (NYT)
| Ingredients | Step |
|---|---|
| Start filtering water -- prepare over a gallon. | |
| PBW bucket (2 gal.) siphon carboy silicon spatula hydrometer graduated cylinder black bin |
Wash any grit away from the supplies. |
| 12 ml Star San (sanitizer) 2 gal. tap water, hot rubber gloves bucket (2 gal.) siphon & hose carboy silicon spatula hydrometer graduated cylinder black bin |
Using rubber gloves, measure sanitizer in graduated cylinder and mix with water in bucket (it will foam). Use siphon to transfer sanitizer to carboy. Sanitize the neck of the carboy by dumping the sanitizer into the black bin. Dump sanitizer back into bucket. Place bin on the side. Then dip each piece of equipment and place in bucket without rinsing. |
| 4 frozen apple juice concentrate cans 10 cans of filtered water, room temp -- NOTE -- next time use 8 or 9 cans, and/or less concentrate; TBD on specific recommendations 1 campden tablet, crushed 1/2 t. pectic enzyme 1/3 t. / 1 g. brewing yeast |
Stir together in the bucket. (It's okay if the bucket still has bubbles from the sanitizer.) The juice will fill more than half the bucket (these ratios make 156 ounces, which is 130% of a gallon). |
| Put the hydrometer in the graduated cylinder. Using the tap on the bucket, slowly release juice into the graduated cylinder until the hygrometer floats (probably around 4 ounces). Make sure no bubbles are attached to the hydrometer. Measure the specific gravity of the juice using the hydrometer -- take the reading at the lowest point (it will be something like 1.055). Make a label that contains: "Started: $todaysDate; Specific gravity: $sg" and attach it to the bucket. Put the lid on the bucket. Put the stopper in the hole. Fill the airlock to the fill line, assemble all three pieces, and place it on top of the stopper. Put the bucket in the black bin; put both in the closet or another place that is around 50-70 degrees. Store the bucket unevenly so that all the sediment falls to the same corner. Rinse the hydrometer and graduated cylinder thoroughly. |
|
| Check it daily. When the airlock shows ~1 bubble per minute (~7 days), start the next stage. | |
| Carefully move the bucket and angle support to a tabletop. Connect the tubing to the bucket's spigot. Rack into carboy via tubing. Allow minimal headspace (add more juice or cider if needed). Let sit 2 weeks. | |
| PBW drinking bottles siphon & tubing bottle filler hydrometer graduated cylinder |
Wash any grit away from the supplies. |
| 12 ml Star San (sanitizer) 2 gal. tap water rubber gloves serving-size bottles sufficient for 128 oz. siphon & tubing bottle filler hydrometer graduated cylinder |
Using rubber gloves, sanitize without rinsing. |
| Connect the tubing to the siphon and the bottle filler. (If you want to backsweeten, you can now. Fill up 100 ml in the graduated cylinder and sweeten it with stevia. Try it (on the order of 3-9 T per gallon), and repeat with different sweetening levels to decide which you like. Then sweeten the batch to that level. To make it fizzy, you can add a wee bit of sugar too; need to look into how much. Alternatively you can you simple syrup in glasses at drinking time.) Put the hydrometer in the graduated cylinder. Using the bottle filler, slowly release juice into the graduated cylinder until the hygrometer floats (probably around 4 ounces). Verify no bubbles, then note the new specific gravity. Calculate the % alcohol by volume as: (originalGravity - finalGravity) * 105 * 1.25 |
|
| Rack into bottles. Label the bottles. Store in fridge to cold shock / clear the yeast. Age in the bottles. |