The Tartaric Blackberry Acid Test
Anyone who has grown up around blackberry bushes knows their true nature is not unlike a weed: hardy, expansive, and prolific. On the West Coast you can walk virtually anywhere and pick bucketfuls whenever you like. You begin to take blackberries for granted—until you move out east, that is. $3 a pint is a bitter pill to swallow, but swallow it you must if you love blackberries. Suddenly the days of pies, cobblers, buckles, shortcakes and anything else you can do with them are gone. Suddenly you’ve got to be selective about your projects. I was definitely sporting my selective glasses this summer, hunting around for the best recipe to spring on this year’s crop of blackberries. When I saw the recipe for Blackberry Acid in the August/September 2006 issue of Saveur, however, I knew it was the one.
What is Blackberry Acid? A thick, slightly fizzy syrup which, when you add seltzer water to it, makes a blackberry soda drink. Apparently, it was a popular drink in the South before the days of the Cola Wars, a true drugstore counter classic. Which may help to explain the presence of one of its principal ingredients: tartaric acid. Which begs the question, “What in God’s name is tartaric acid?”
As something that used to be a common household item, alongside citric acid and ascorbic acid, tartaric acid has all but disappeared from our shelves. Tartaric acid is a by-product of the winemaking process, and was used extensively in yesteryear as a preservative, an acidifier, and a carbonator, but has since been all but eclipsed. But who on earth would stock such stuff in this day and age? Somehow I knew my best bet was also the one closest to me: our corner pharmacy, N.J. Shore. Aside from having an almost poetic name that calls to mind images of boardwalks and salt water taffy, N.J. Shore is a true treasure trove—the kind of drugstore that’s practically a museum, the kind of drugstore where you can find all kinds of fascinating discontinued oddities, the kind of drugstore where Anthony used to pick up strange 1960s postcards for 10 cents a pop. They’d come through for me in the past with citric acid, so I figured I might as well ask.
“What do you want with that?,” the woman at the counter asked me. I didn’t know of any illicit use* for tartaric acid, so I had nothing to hide. “I’m making blackberry soda,” I responded. “Blackberry soda?” Suddenly things started happening. “I need some tartaric acid over here now!,” she barked into the backroom. “She’s making soda!” Seconds later a strange little bottle of white powder came from the back with a vintage of about 1941.
“How much?,” I asked, fully expecting some crazy big-ticket price for such a rarity, for such an antique. “Just bring us some soda and you can have it.” I ran home with it and, needless to say, I got to work right away.
Here’s what I did:
Blackberry Acid (from Saveur’s August/September issue)
8 cups blackberries
7 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. tartaric acid**
Mix all of the ingredients in a large glass jar and cover. Let stand 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain through cheesecloth and discard berries. Place syrup in sterilized jars and cover with cheesecloth secured with a rubber band. Store in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks.*** Store in the fridge and serve with seltzer water.****
After all was said and done, I was left with a syrup that was so good and so totally blackberry, that I vowed then and there that I would make this treat every year from now on (even if I have to import the tartaric acid from the Tartar Mountains myself).
As for you, dear readers… Believe it or not, there are still blackberries at the market if you run. Couldn’t you use a little good old-fashioned Blackberry Acid in your life?
Oh, and, yes, I did return to N.J. Shore with blackberry sodas for everyone.
Tartaric acid from the folks at N.J Shore: free.
Seeing their like-kids-at-a-soda-fountain expressions on their faces when I brought them their own batch of blackberry sodas: priceless.
am/km
* I later found out that it is toxic and can poison you if ingested in significant quantities (!). Pretty much like every other substance known to man.
** In the end, I didn't end up using that bottle of Atlas tartaric acid. I kept it as a souvenir and bought a slightly newer vintage at a big, modern drugstore on Van Horne. It wasn't something they stocked regularly. They had to special order it for me.
*** I tried a small amount before this step and found it to be too sweet and flat-tasting. The fermentation that occurs over the course of the 3 weeks makes a big difference in the final taste.
**** Just a brief note on the sad state of seltzer affairs in North America: almost all of the seltzer home delivery companies have shut down, with a few notable exceptions (i.e. Seltzer Sisters in the San Francisco Bay Area). I wish we could get local seltzer delivered to our door. We are looking for any traces of what must have been a big part of Montreal’s past. If anyone has any information on companies that used to provide this service in Montreal, please let us know. We mean it. Just think of how much better our blackberry sodas would taste.
9 comments:
That's very cool, could this work out with other types of berries as well? I read up about seltzer sisters in gourmet this month is there much difference between the classic seltzer of yore and using a ISI soda siphon?.
Franck, I think you could make this will any berry that willingly gives off its juice without cooking. I am thinking of raspberries and strawberries in particular.
There is a difference between seltzer and the soda siphon, amount of carbonation. From what I understand, the soda siphons have a limited amount of carbonation they can handle, and they loose it over time, whereas seltzer bottles are stronger and keep their fizz. Let me know if you have tried it, and if it works. I am on the hunt for a soda siphon. I will let you know if I find one.
I was thinking of raspberries as well when I read your post last nite, this could be cool to serve as a small drink alongside a fruit dessert, I will try and get hold of some tartaric acid and give it a go. I have a soda siphon that I've only used a few times(bought off ebay)it's practically new and I have a bunch of charges also, if you guys are interested I could part with it, I just don't use it that much. Also thanks for the maple syrup got my bottle tonite.
You can also find Tartaric Acid in wine making stores, it's an on-shelf item.
i don't know about local soda delivery companies, but i do know that you can buy a small home soda maker for under $100. it works with a compressed air cartridge, no electricity. you simply order a new CO2 cartridge when you run out and the company delivers it. makes excellent seltzer. the company i bought mine from is called soda club.
Hi anonymous,
Of course! Not being winemakers, this obvious source for T.A. eluded us.
Hi Lori,
Thanks for the tip. We may just have to go out and find one of those. But what about the bottles? How do you go about replicating those. I guess we'll just have to scour ebay for them, or something. And what about delivery? This is going to make me sound like a real old codger, but when I was a kid we got our milk delivered to our door--in suburban California no less. Hard to believe now. Trust me, that was the only bizarre and totally anachronistic (and oh-so-satisfying) holdover from "the golden years" that was available to us at the time. Everything else couldn't have been any more (post)modern. In fact, sometimes I think I just dreamt that part.
Cream of tartar (in any supermarket's spice area) is a good substitute since it's 50% tartaric acid (and 50% potassium tartarate or something like that).
I've been experimenting with fruit "acids" this summer. Made a very fine one with mulberries and now that blackberries have come in I've got some of that started, too.
There's also a recipe in The Gift of Southern Cooking that doesn't involve fermentation. The syrup is cooked and then chilled for two weeks.
If you want to make your own seltzer or soda water (the terms are interchangeable) you can get a nice soda siphon from Amazon or at your local kitchen store. They're nice, although the cost compared to cheap seltzer water from the grocery probably nets out even.
I finally got around to making this. I substituted Stevia for part of the sugar. Thanks for the recipe! I've written about it and put a link to your blog at http://www.heartwriting.biz/blog.
Lynda
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