Vinegar |
Spring
Submitted by Nia on Mon, 2007-05-21 4:0204:02:59 PM.
Homemade vinegar is a very simple recipe. If there is local wine, but not local wine vinegar, and that's what you would like, here is how.
Ingredients:
Balsamic, or good quality wine vinegar.
Local wine. The cheaper the better.
Add a (big) splash of vinegar to the bottle of wine (you may have to drink a glass first to make room for the vinegar). Close with a folded or roller paper napkin: you want air coming in and out but you don't want dust to get in. Keep in a dark place. Check in two weeks and taste a drop. The difference between sour wine and real vinegar is easy to notice. If it doesn't taste like a salad yet, give it another week. A relatively warm place speeds up the process.
Transfer part of the contents of the bottle to the smaller bottle you will keep in the pantry. It is your culture; you can keep adding a bit of every bottle of wine you use. If you keep it for long enough, it is likely to develop a scary-looking, soft, jelly-like substance at the bottom. Don't worry: that's just a lot of culture.
For white vinegar, you need white wine. But for red vinegar, you can use red or a mix.
White vinegar can be aromatised with herbs, which can't be done with the red one because it's too strong.
I assume the same could be done with apple vinegar and cider, but I've never tried.
What a wonderful recipe! Several years ago I found a handwritten recipe (or "receipt") book, by one Lizzie Haile McRae, in the choir room at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Chatham, Va., which contained this recipe for vinegar. The book was begun c. 1887, and the recipe is a lot more complicated than Nia's.
(edit comment)"Save all your apple parings. Put them in a stone jar + add just enough warm water to wet them thoroughly. Cover with a coarse piece of muslin and set in a warm place until the fermentation begins. Then strain just through a colander then through a strainer cloth. After it has settled drain it off into a stone jug. Tie a coarse rag over the mouth to keep out insects without keeping out the air. Stand [it] in the kitchen near the stove until sour enough for use then cork + set in a cool place.
"To increase the strength of vinegar: add one pound of honey to a gallon of cider. Let it stand for some months, and a vinegar will be produced so powerful that water will have to be mixed with it for common use."