How to Make Vinegar
Written by Asinus Asinum Fricat on May 25, 2008 – 4:34 am -Back in my Sydney cooking days, I used to make my own vinegar. All you need is a “mother” (I’ll explain below), a large vat with a small tap at the bottom, and lots of leftover wine, red preferably.
Making vinegar is so easy it can be done by accident (that’s how I discovered it). We could even say that most of it is made without our cooperation or awareness. Making a good red wine or raspberry vinegar is another story. That requires a little effort. But the effort pays well.
Vinegar can be made from almost anything which contains sugar or starch. It is made from many different things; fruits, grains, roots even wood. And you can make your own mother of vinegar too, although you don’t actually need it (but if you are going to be serious, you might as well make one). All you have to do is add already-made vinegar to apple cider, in a proportion of 1:4 or if you want a red wine vinegar, pour a bottle of good red wine vinegar into the vat and start adding leftover red wine.
To make mother of vinegar, expose a mixture of one-half vinegar and one-half cider to a temperature of 80 degrees for a few days. The thin scum that forms on the surface is mother of vinegar. That’s it folks. That’s all there is to do. Next time you buy a bottle of red which tastes foul, out it goes into the vinegar vat! The French word for vinegar is “vinaigre”, which, literally, means sour wine.
Tags: Food, Recipes, Teaching, Vinegar Making
Posted in Food |
4 Comments
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Cool!
Do you add cider to the vinegar with red wine? Is it white wine vinegar, cider and red wine?
I’d love to make my own vinegar. This is very cool.
No, you can basically make three kinds of vinegar (four, if you’re daring enough to make balsamic - I’ve never tried that): red wine, white wine or malt, and cider. Choose the one that is more suitable to your needs and start it. It’s that easy.
Got it!
::rubs hands together and laughs maniacally:: I’m going to make my own vinegar!
Also great as a cleaning agent, in fact you can clean your entire house with your own vinegar. Thev trick is to collect as many dregs of wine as you can, so if you know of a restaurant or a bar nearby, you can ask them to keep the leftover wine from patrons, or throw a large party, ask everyone to bring vino, and collect!