Andrews - Making and using flavored vinegars

Glenn Andrews

Seasoned vinegars are lovely, both to keep for your own use and to give away as special gifts. There are many excellent seasoned vinegars on the market, but yours will be better fresher, more flavorful, and more unusual. (The price differential is nice, too.)

These vinegars are simple to make. Youre limited only by the range of your imagination and imaginations have a wonderful way of opening up when you begin to stretch them. Start by making some of the versions Ill give you, then create your own, adding whatever herbs, spices, and flavorings sound good to you.

This bulletin is divided into two main sections.

In Making Flavored Vinegars, youll find general instructions (heating, steeping, ripening, etc.) for making the vinegars followed by recipes for specific vinegars Three-Pepper; Thyme, Lemon Peel, and Black Pepper; Raspberry, etc. and a few hints on making your own wine vinegar from whatever table wine you have left over from time to time.

In the next second section, Recipes Using Flavored Vinegars, are specifics and suggestions for perking up your cooking in the simplest possible way, by judicious use of your beautiful flavored vinegars. Making these vinegars is fun, but using them is even more fun (and that, of course, is the point of the whole operation!).

Especially in the vinegars you plan to give away, go for looks as well as flavor. Save attractive bottles (half-pint maple syrup ones, for instance) or check flea markets and yard sales. Make labels from gold press-on notarial seals. Make the bottles pleasing to look at by inserting into them, where appropriate, whole sprigs of herbs, whole (and choice) berries, cinnamon sticks, etc.

One sort of container Ive found especially helpful is the 16-ounce reclosable Grolsch beer bottle. (If you live in a state with a bottle bill, you can probably get empties from a friendly liquor store, though drinking the beer is not too difficult a chore for most people.) Grolsch also puts its beer into regular bottles, so be sure to get the ones with the little ceramic swing-away top.

Soak off the labels, then put on your own. (File folder labels work well and come in different colors, or with stripes of color.) My only complaint with these bottles is that I wish they also came in smaller size.

Sterilize your bottles by washing them, then pouring in some boiling water (use a small funnel). Leave the hot water in the bottles for ten minutes, then pour it out and invert the bottles onto paper towels. When theyre thoroughly dry, pour in the vinegar, which youve made according to the directions Ill give you. As you will see, some of the vinegars are made right in the bottle by a gradual steeping of ingredients. Others require advance preparation.

If there is any metal on the bottle lid, put a piece of plastic wrap over the opening before capping.

A fine touch when youre giving away your vinegars is to include some recipes for their use as part of the gift. Feel free to borrow a few of my ideas and recipes (for this use only!). Better yet, of course, include a copy of this bulletin.

For wrapping the bottles, I tend to fall back on good old tissue paper in various colors, tied around the neck of the bottle with a satin ribbon. You can also use the brightly colored, shiny-finish bags sold for liquor gift-giving by many gift shops.

Many flavored vinegars can be made right in the bottles in which you will store them or give them away as long as you have enough time at your disposal to allow for the gradual build-up of flavor by the steeping process. You simply insert the flavoring ingredients into the bottle, add the vinegar and wait.

If, however, you suddenly decide in mid-December that you want to give your Aunt Minnie some marvelous vinegar for the holidays, youre going to have to speed up the process. To do this, first bruise your seasoning ingredients smash them as best you can with a garlic press, pepper mill, coffee grinder, or even a hammer. (In the case of fresh herbs, just crumple them up a bit.) Then place them in a jar with a cover (a mayonnaise jar works well), heat the vinegar to the boiling point, and pour it into the jar.

Keep the jar at room temperature, covered. Start tasting the vinegar in a day or two (putting a few drops on a small piece of bread is a good way to do this) so you will know when the flavor is just right. In many cases, the vinegar will be ready in just a few hours.

When you decide to go with the vinegar the way it is, strain out the flavoring ingredients. Now carefully examine the vinegar. If you can see small particles floating around, or if it looks at all cloudy, run it through a coffee filter until its clear.

Put another small supply of the seasoning ingredients (this time left whole) into the bottles, mostly for looks, and pour in the vinegar.

Other vinegars, such as raspberry, are best made by cooking the main ingredients briefly in the vinegar, then steeping. No matter which method you use, theres very little effort involved and the rewards are tremendous.

All the vinegars will keep indefinitely. If you plan to keep them on hand for a long time, though, its wise to sterilize the vinegar you use as a base to avoid further development of the cloudy-looking mother. Because of vinegars excellent preservative properties, any sprigs of herbs, etc., that you add will stay fresh looking.

The instructions below all make about two cups of vinegar. To make more, just multiply the ingredients.

In each of the sets of instructions below, Ive suggested that you use a certain vinegar. Theres always a reason for my choices. Red wine vinegar adds to the color of raspberry vinegar; white wine vinegar shows off the Thyme, Lemon Peel, and Black Pepper Vinegar, and so forth. However, please feel free to follow your own inclinations and preferences.

Here are the vinegars you can find in most grocery stores. (You dont need to use the most expensive brands. Youll be making them special enough to please the most epicurean taste.)

Red wine vinegar Attractive to the eye; mildly gusty.

White wine vinegar Off-white; delicate in taste.

Champagne vinegar Not too different from white wine vinegar.

Japanese or Chinese rice vinegar (white or red) Very subtle, delicate flavor (but be aware that the seasoned variety contains sugar).

Distilled white vinegar Colorless; very acidic; best for such unsubtle uses as Hot, Hot, Hot Vinegar.

Apple cider vinegar Light brown; strong flavor of apples.

Malt vinegar Dark brown; very strong but pleasant flavor; can be hard to find except in Canada (where its used on French fries!)or in England (where its the preferred condiment for fish and chips).

Sherry vinegar Brown; strong flavor of sherry; usually imported from Spain; rather expensive.

Of all these possibilities, the best for making most flavored vinegars are the first four red wine, white wine, champagne, and Japanese rice vinegars. For most purposes, the others have too strong a flavor of their own. (Exceptions: such pungent vinegars as the ones made with hot peppers, shallots, garlic, or onion.)