A universal recipe for tincture of rhubarb at home

Rhubarb, not the most popular culinary ingredient today, was once of great value. Russian merchants exchanged it for Venetian jewelry, and in France of the XNUMXth century it was five times more expensive than saffron. The tradition of using rabarbara in cooking and preparing drinks is gradually being revived, and it would be foolish to bypass this topic. And we decided to start our research with a simple and universal recipe for tincture of rhubarb stalks.

For thousands of years, since ancient China and Persia, rhubarb root has been used to make one of the oldest medicinal preparations that has helped to overcome ailments associated with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Europe was introduced to this plant not by anyone, but by Marco Polo himself, who visited the Tangut kingdom during his long stay in the Celestial Empire, where rhubarb was harvested in huge quantities. In the XNUMXth century, Russia acquired an exclusive monopoly on its sale in Europe, enriching itself decently.

But with the development of medicine, the healing root was forgotten, focusing on rhubarb stalks, which were useful in cooking. Rhubarb leaves are dangerous to eat – they contain a fairly large amount of oxalic acid, which is harmful to our body. But the cuttings are completely safe and have a very pleasant sweet and sour taste, something in between ripe antonovka, plums and strawberries.

In fact, rhubarb on Romovy flashed more than once. For the first time, he and I prepared the original mulberry wine with strawberries (look for the “Autumn” wine). Later, material appeared with recipes for strawberry tinctures, where there is a drink similar to the one below.

In cooking, rhubarb is used both as a vegetable and as a fruit (in general, it is a perennial herb of the buckwheat family). Sauces for meat, salads, cabbage soup, pies, jelly, compotes, a huge variety of desserts and even jam are prepared from it. But we, of course, are interested in the “drinking potential” of the petioles. The best drink based on rhubarb, of course, is wine, but you should start your acquaintance with this non-exotic exotic with tinctures of vodka, alcohol or moonshine.

You can drink rhubarb tincture in its pure form, tipping a small glass after a hearty dinner, or mixing it with various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. They did well in this: tonic, regular soda, lemonade, a mixture of lemon and soda, cranberry juice with a little lime juice (a reference to the Cosmopolitan). According to rumors, the tincture performs well in Spritz with Prosecco. But if you let this unique drink into the garden of mixologists, then you need to do it with taste!