Shipovnik

the Russian rosehip infusion: dried hips crushed and steeped overnight in a thermos, strained clear of their hairs, and drunk by the glass through the winter against colds and fatigue

Origin: Russia

From the journey of Rose.

Shipovnik, from shipy, thorns, is the Russian name for the wild rose and for the drink made from its hips, and it occupies a place in Russian domestic life that has no real western parallel. Dried hips are sold in every pharmacy and every market, kept in a paper bag through the winter, and steeped overnight in a thermos flask to make a tawny, sour, faintly resinous infusion drunk by the glass. It is understood as a tonic rather than a pleasure, taken against colds, fatigue, and the general grey attrition of a Russian February, and the understanding is sound, since rosehips carry many times the vitamin C of citrus by weight. The Soviet state took the practice and systematised it: shipovnik hedges were planted along roads and around institutions, the infusion was issued in sanatoria, schools, and the army, and it was written into the official dietetics, where it has remained. The thermos is not a shortcut but the correct method. A long, gentle, covered steep at below boiling point extracts far more from a dried hip than a brief hot brew, and it avoids destroying the very vitamin the drink is taken for. What must not be skipped is the straining, because packed amongst the seeds inside every hip is a mass of fine irritant hairs.

Ingredients

Infusion

  • 60 g dried rosehips (about 6 heaped tablespoons)
  • 1 litre water, boiled and left to stand 2 minutes

To Serve

  • 2 tbsp honey, or to taste (optional)
  • 1 whole lemon, sliced (optional)
  • 4 whole dried apple rings or a few raisins (optional, traditional)

Method

  1. Rinse the dried hips briefly in cold water and drain. Crush them coarsely with a rolling pin or pulse briefly in a grinder, so that most are broken open but none is reduced to powder.
  2. Rinse a 1 litre thermos flask with boiling water and empty it. Put in the crushed hips, and the dried apple or raisins if using.
  3. Boil the water, take it off the heat, and let it stand for 2 minutes so it drops to around 90°C before pouring it over the hips. Seal the flask.
  4. Leave to steep for at least 8 hours, or overnight. The liquid will darken to a deep tawny orange-red.
  5. Strain through a fine sieve lined with muslin or a coffee filter, so that the infusion runs perfectly clear. Sweeten with honey if you like, add a slice of lemon, and drink warm or at room temperature.

Notes

Dried hips are sold by Eastern European and health-food shops and keep for years in a paper bag; fresh hips can be used at about three times the weight, though the flavour is lighter and less resinous. Do not gather from busy roadsides or sprayed hedgerows. Some households add a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves, or a strip of orange peel to the flask, and a spoonful of varenye stirred into the glass, in the manner of Russian tea, is common. The spent hips can be given a second, weaker steeping. The infusion keeps two or three days refrigerated and is drunk cold in summer; poured over ice with lemon it makes an excellent soft drink, and it can be sweetened, thickened with a little potato starch, and served as kisel.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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