Has anyone out there tried to make vinegar? I’d love to know how it went.
I’m not talking about making herb vinegar. That’s easy. Pick the herbs – tarragon, for instance – and shove in a bottle together. Done.
You can make it complicated by actually picking the grapes – these are from our local community garden Veg Out – and fermenting them into wine and then introducing the vinegar bacteria which chemically changes alcohol to vinegar and so on.
Alternatively, you could buy it ready made in a prissy little bottle with some quaint French provincial design. But what’s the point when you have a tarragon bush playing standover to a zucchini plant.
The problem is buying the wine vinegar to pimp up with herbs. I’m not averse to shelling out a bit of dosh for an aged balsamic or sherry vinegar, simply because I can recognise the qualities of the taste and the ageing in oak barrels blah, blah does “add value” as hard-headed business types might describe it.
But white or red wine vinegar appears to be more expensive that wine. Yesterday, at the Essential Ingredient at Prahran Market there were no decent sized bottles of the stuff. At the best deli there I could buy small bottles for about $25 for the posh stuff or $10 as I chose. I really wanted a gallon of the stuff.
It seems strange to me that I’m buying what is essentially wine that has gone off that is more expensive than the wine I drink.
Which makes me think could I make my own by simply leaving a bottle of wine – perhaps a good Petit Chablis – open?
All the web resources I find talk of buying starter kits from a wine shop and PH tests that take me right back to the lab at university. And then ageing it in an oak barrel or with wood chips.
Love to hear any advice.
And an unashamed plug for the Post and EaT Everything WeekEnd Lame LeftoverS (PETE WELLS) event here. You’ve up until last thing on the 13th to post.
WHB, WHB#22, weekend herb blogging, vinegar, grapesMelbourne, Australia
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Okay, I have to confess I know absolutely nothing about making vinegar. I am kind of surprised at the prices of the vinegar you’re looking at. Even the small bottle (About $7.00 U.S.) is a lot more than it would be here. I could get a fairly good red or white wine vinegar for less than $5 a bottle, and a big jug of it at Costco for not much more (lower quality but not horrible). Of course the U.S. is obsessed with consumerism and bargain hunting, so maybe that brings prices down on some things.
I wrote an article on this very subject for Epicure some years ago. Yes, you can make it yourself, but you do need equipment, namely a vinaigriar (vinegar barrel) to produce the wine in, some mother to get the process going and strangely some wine vinegar, to protect your emerging product, though this is a once only thing. Oh, and some drinkable wine. Look under winery supplies in the phone book, two mentioned in the article were Winequip and Australian Home Brewing, though things may of changed since.
DrReb if you are reading this, be very careful making verjuice. It’s not unheard of for the grape juice to commence fermenting and cause the bottle to explode.
tom, i read your post about your sidebar being down on the bottom at foodscool and i wish i could help!
it is crazy when you think about spending more money on a vinegar than a wine. let me know if you figure out how to do it!
i also wish i could help with the vinegar but don’t know about that either. man, i’m good for nuthin!! ha
and i like the look of your site, despite the sidebar hiding out down below. tell it to get back in its cage
My uncle’s Sicilian parents make their own vinegar (and their own wine as well). I’ll ask about the particulars of making it, which I haven’t done before because I’m the happy recipient of said gallon of the stuff every year. My understadning is that they have a vinegar barrel that they just top up by tipping in the wine that’s gone sour (I reckon that’s the whole batch but such comments are churlish of me) and no ph tests or experiemnts or bunsen burners involved. The outcome is exceptionally good, no preservatives, organic blah blah and has a lowish acidity and faintly porty sweetness. I think like yoghurt using the vinegar as a starter gets you in the general area. I’ve also tried making verjuice but it went mouldy
I’ll investigate for you and get back to you with firmer answers!
Kaylyn, I try to avoid the big supermarkets buut somehow had it in my head that I’d find a gallon bottle of the stuff the herb up in some specialist shop– just like in the French Hypermarkets.
Mona, thanks. The probles was cultural rather than technical. I deeted a line of code and when I retyped it in went all English spelling center centre.It’s back in its cage…think you’ve spent too much time atthe zoo.
|DReb, thanks. I have memories of leaving out wine and it turning to vinager and thought it would be simple. Looks like I’ll have to clear a space in my tiny outdoor cupboard for a small barrel.
Bad luch with the Verjuice.I’ve never seen the point of it when a spalsh of wine will do. I think it’ probably a reaction to Maggie Beer boring for South AUstralia on the subject.
Cheers tankeduptaco… I suspect I’ll be visiting the home brew shop. Probably that one near Victoria markets that sells te stills I’ve being eyeng up to make grappa with. I was sort of hoping to get away with a barrel but I suppose a small one wouldn’t do any harm.
have you seen these?
http://habeasbrulee.com/category/homebrew/
http://ideasinfood.typepad.com/ideas_in_food/2005/05/you_have_to_mak.html
Knowing absolutely nothing about making vinegar (except that years ago, my mother made pear vinegar with no difficulty at all when she was attempting to make pear wine), and I thought that whatever bacteria was required for making the liquid turn to vinegar would be already there – just the way that fruit will ferment on its own. But as I said, I know nothing about making vinegar and salute you for wanting to make your own.
Apparently, vinegar is made from sugar cane juice in India.
Did you see this?
http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/recipes.htm
scroll down to:
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, July 10, 1861, p. 4, c. 2
(But I also read on one of the googled pages that it’s probably unwise to use your homemade vinegar for pickling because of the unknown strength of the vinegar.)
-Elizabeth
I’ve never done this–but I think it’s very exciting that you may do it–and let us see how it works?
:)
Thanks, Cin – sorry my sam filter caught you for a while. They are great resources.
Sher and Elizabeth thansk for the encourageent. It looks like I’m going to have to go forward on this one. What I’ve discover is that I need a wine that hasn’t has sulphur added. The quest is on.
That second picture … absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks Cate. Maybe for the next DMBLGIT?
Respected sir /madam
I am muthu from TAMILNADU,India . I would like to know the procedure for prepare vinegar from Tomato. IF you don’t mind send the procedure to my mail as soon as possible. i am waiting for your kind reply.
Thanking you
Yours faithfuly
N.MUTHUKKANNAN.