From earlier posts on this blog, you know I love cocktails that have a fruit base. A citrus syrup is the ideal beginning for a variety of cocktails. This recipe for grapefruit syrup was included in an earlier blog for a Grapefruit Martini, and I’m elevating it here so that you consider it and possibly give this syrup a try.
I’ve tried variations on this recipe and found that the original is the best. It contains a lot, a lot, of grapefruit juice, so the syrup is unquestionably tart. To make it sweeter, you can adjust the sugar level. I tried using just one grapefruit and more oranges. In that experiment, I learned something important: one grapefruit can have an enormous amount of juice. I wanted the same volume of syrup, so I kept grabbing for more oranges. I went from 3 oranges to 12. And in the end, I had something that was more orange juice, than citrus syrup.
This grapefruit syrup has balance so it can itself be the sweet-sour mix you put in a classic cocktail. It can be the base for a salad dressing, or you can saute chicken or fish in it. But it’s real purpose is for beverages, and you can have nothing better.
Grapefruit Syrup
Ingredients:
3 lemons, zested and juiced
3 limes, zested and juiced,
3 grapefruit, zested and juiced
1 cup of sugar
Preparation:
Zest then juice the fruit. Save the zest in one pile. Save all the juices in one bowl. Strain the juices into a small saucepan. Add the sugar. Heat until gently boiling.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the zest from all the fruit. Allow the liquid to cool to warm.
Strain off the zest and refrigerate until needed.
Source: Adapted by Brian O’Rourke from the recipe Citrus Syrup for Soft Drinks on the Food Network.