Re: Terry Making Vinegars

[Guest guest]

Terry...thank you so much for your replies.

I can't wait to try some of the other types you mention here.

Kathleen

Making Vinegars

Anything Infused Vinegar

Recipe By: Bob Pastorio

Ingredients

1 qt. white wine vinegar

1 qt. cider vinegar

1 bunch flavorings

Instructions

Our word " vinegar " comes from the French " vin aigre " or sour wine.

Virtually every culture on earth uses vinegar as a flavoring (alone or

blended with other flavors), as a preservative, or as a beverage.

Adding the flavors is the simplest job in the kitchen. Combine the vinegar

with the flavoring agents and wait a month. Want to shorten it to days?

Stand the uncovered bottles of vinegar with their flavoring agents in a pan

of hot water (180 degrees or so) for an hour or two, then let them cool,

cap them and wait about three days for the

flavors to develop. Store in the dark.

What flavors? How much to use? In which types of vinegar? What size

bottles? Well, here's some of what I have, in a wide selection of bottles,

most of which hold 750 ml. As far as how much of the flavoring to use, I

just put stuff into the bottles until I don't think I should put any more.

I find that three or four sprigs of fresh herbs is good. From

one, up to a dozen cloves of garlic, but less if other flavors are to be

emphasized. Peels of two citrus fruits. A cinnamon stick.

* Orange/white - distilled vinegar with the peel of one or two oranges.

Peel the orange with a vegetable peeler so none of the white gets into the

vinegar. The white (or pith) is bitter. Great for fruit salads or molds.

* Lemon/white - peel of two lemons. Does magic for oily fish like tuna or

salmon. Two or three drops on ripe melon is a pleasant shock.

* Grapefruit/cider - obviously citric but people look confused for a moment

until they figure it out. Has a sharp edge that cuts through oiliness.

Fresh tuna, salmon or, best, mackerel.

* Garlic/red wine - five or six peeled cloves of garlic on a skewer in a

tall-necked bottle. Very decorative that way. Or, one clove of Elephant

garlic in a large-mouth jar. Full, rich flavor and full scent. Mostly for

salads and only with friends. Garlic/white wine is more subtle and somehow

graceful although not as bold as the red.

* Cinnamon/cider - I first tried a tablespoon of ground cinnamon. One of my

aesthetically less successful efforts. Tastes good, looks bad. The vinegar

ends up cloudy and there's a ring around the inside of the bottle at the

top of the liquid. Now I use a large cinnamon stick and leave it on heat

for about 3 hours. Surprising what a tablespoon in an

apple pie does; toss with apple slices before putting into the shell. Good

in a Waldorf Salad.

* Peppercorn/cider - one of the best. A half cup whole, black peppercorns

in the bottle. Open the bottle and smell the sweet, pure scent of fresh

pepper. A few drops on a steak is terrific. Use it in a beurre blanc for

meat. Add some to barbecue sauce or demi-glace.

* Shallot/cider - nasty tasting, stinky and an altogether,

no-doubt-about-it failure. Despite the clear facts, I keep hoping it'll

improve with age but so far the hope is vain.

* Ginger/cider - a good one. One good sized hand (that's what the full root

is called) of fresh ginger, sliced thin and put into the vinegar for a

week or so. Run it through a strainer before using to take the slices out.

Use in fish poaching liquid. Makes a wonderful mayonnaise for tuna salad or

anything like it.

* Anise/white - Anise seed tastes and smells like licorice. About a quarter

cup of seeds. Good on fruit salads, white-fleshed fish, strongly flavored

vegetables like broccoli.

* Mint/white - a couple sprigs of fresh or quarter cup of dried mint flakes

- make a highly aromatic vinegar. Nice on salads, especially if there are

fruit included. Add a few drops to marinade and/or gravy for lamb.

* Basil-Garlic/cider - Superb as part of an oil and vinegar salad dressing

or a blended vinaigrette for cooked vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower and

cabbage work beautifully with this one. Five basil leaves and three cloves

garlic.

* Honey/cider - Quarter cup honey - complete with tiny pieces of honeycomb.

Very quiet touch of sweet and sour and the very small waxy pieces of comb

add a nicely puzzling texture note to salads and fruit compotes.

* Jalapeno/Anaheim/Cayenne/Habanero peppers/cider - one or two of each type

of pepper in the bottle. Bites the tongue hard if you're not careful.

Judiciously used, this one makes marinades, salsa, mayonnaise and salad

dressings sing. The scent is rich and peppery and it makes sauces sparkle.

Exported from A Cook's Books -- Recipe management for Macintosh

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