I think you missed a truly important aspect of the history and use of alcohol and often vinegar in history. It's been at least 1000 years since Chinese have been using vinegar as the base for medicinal elixirs. Intentionally? I think so, I'll spare you the references. Same with sushi. Before vinegar the microbes themselves caused the sour taste in the fish. In most cases the bacteria and enzymes produced were the same. Lee should really get a truly scientific Power of Hydrogen meter. Cost? $300. I'd pay that much for a good knife, or an excellent bottle of sake. You also failed to mention the people that will tell you what's in your mother or vinegar community (Supreme Vinegar in PA, i.e.) so you can propagate mothers with distinct characteristics if you are really into it. As will a microbiologist with a taste for your goods. Misti should add peony root to her vinegar as well. Great for vaginal dysbiosis!
I’d like to know how Edward Lee’s recipe for fermented fruit vinegar unfolds. Specifically, once the fruit ferments in the bag, he adds it to a 2-3 litre jar. Presumably with a sugar water mixture???
Then I’m guessing he sieves the solids out and continues the ferment? His approach is different from other methods so it would be great if the full process could be shared! Pretty please!!
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Yes! And are the bags necessary or can you just start with the jars?
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I have been making vinegar at home for 7 years or so. This includes red and white wine vinegars to more delicate vinegars derived from champagne and saki. All of the wines used to make our vinegars came from wine tails left over from dinners and entertaining. Very easy to do and definitely a culinary game changer.
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After pickling cucumbers, I used the resulting dill flavoured vinegar to pickle boiled eggs for a few days.
After pickling cherry peppers, that I mash to make pepper paste, I use the resulting vinegar - add Tarragon and make a delicious vinegar I use in my escabeches.
My Dad still makes garage wine, and then refermants to make wine vinegar.
Nothing goes to waste, very delicious and healthy too.
Bon Appétit!
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Wine's angry cousin can be just as good a friend.
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I have collected many flavors of vinegar from a stand at a local farmers market. Dark or white balsamic vinegar flavored with pears, cranberry, or blood orange are my current favorites. The fig one is also good. A little drizzle is all I want on salads any more--no oil needed. Grapefruit segments or bleu cheese in the salad softens the vinegar taste.
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Our local Vomm Fas vinegar place is going out of business
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Must be time for food fade folks and snobs to start a new one. Good for the economy however as you will now be able to spend $30-40 for a bottle of, maybe, watermelon or some such vinegar which will truly transform your epicurean endeavors. Good luck to all.
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@ TED338 Sarasota
Note that vinegar is made from a great variety of plants and fruit, but I found nothing about vinegar made from dry wood (as from old furniture), old leather or meat products.
I have a severely limited sodium intake and I use citrus juices and vinegars as a substitute. Spice storage looks like the forth appendix of a bartender's book, which draws some attention, not all of it positive.
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After reading the article I know more about how to make vinegar. But only a few vague instructions on how to use it. I would have appreciated something more specific.
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there's a recipe at the end of the article
Since discovering a digestive problem with allium, I have found that vinegar is a useful replacement for that particular flavor layer. I have an alchemists pantry of vinegars to apply to whatever I happen to be cooking at the moment. And, I am constantly discovering more flavors. If you make homemade mustard, you can use any of the vinegars as a flavoring agent.
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Perhaps you can help me start a movement to persuade restaurants to use other herbs, spices, etc instead of throwing garlic on everything.
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I make lavender vinegar each year, and include the purple flowers as well as the leaves/stems.
Beautiful scent and color! It is lovely in salads, with fish and chicken. People love it as gifts, too.
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That can't be anything but fantastic.
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About six months ago, I bought a bottle of O Olive Oils and Vinegar -- the cabernet version. I fell in love with it, and have since purchased another 8 or so of this California company's vinegars (fig, citrus, champagne, honey-citrus, a few balsamics). I have probably quadrupled my intake of greens and other vegies (and vinegar) as a result, thanks to the wonderful flavors of these vinegars. I look forward to trying my hand at making my own, but I doubt I will ever be without a good selection of my O vinegars...
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@Helen I've been trying to fine their product line here on the east coast. Did you purchase locally?
My father was the manager of a vinegar bottling plant back in the '60s. Prior to this bottling vinegar, his plant bottled Hires Root Beer. How I missed the sweet smell of root beer compared to the horrendous and vile smell of vinegar on his clothes when he came home from work every day. And the summer months only made that smell all of the more pungent and difficult to take. To this day, the smell of regular vinegar makes me gag.
But then, to my delight and surprise, I was introduced to various "beautiful aged balsamic" vinegars which changed my opinion forever. So sweet, so delicate, so full of options with various foods. There should really be a distinctive labeling between "smelly" vinegars (sad face) and "good tasting, dessert-style" vinegars (happy face).
Loved this article and loved being introduced to the plethora of vinegars in the world other than the one stinky and smelling version my father bottled.
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I do not get the vinegar love. More often than not, the smell and flavor are overpowering and not good. If I need a brightening flavor, lemon or lime juice work fine, and actually taste and smell good.
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Really good balsamic vinegar is amazing on home made gelato.
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I finish almost all thick soups, stews and chili dishes with a tablespoon or two of sherry vinegar, in the last minutes of cooking. It provides a balancing zing to what can otherwise be a muddy flavor profile. I find most fruit vinegars too sweet for savory dishes, but I have used raspberry vinegar on berries with creme fraiche, and it’s good on ice cream!
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Not sure I am sold on fruit-based sweet vinegars. I can see these completely overpowering a dish. The key to vinegar (for me) is to use them sparingly and near the end of the cooking process for a splash of acidity. Use them too soon and they burn off during cooking and you lose the acidity.
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This article brings to mind an incredible vinegar tasting we experienced on a Rhine cruise this fall. We visited a unique vinegar distiller who ages his various vinegars like wine and has tastings. The vinegars were wonderful and were paired with foods like chocolates and fruits. It was at the Doktorenhof Vinegar Estate inland from Speyer.
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There's also another form of fruit that is useful in cooking, but very much absent from the American food scene as compared to traditional cuisines of European areas with viniculture: verjus and mustum.
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