Vinegar Choices

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Choice of VinegarsYou don’t have to make the base vinegar yourself, you can season store-bought vinegars with your own fresh herbs. There are a wide variety of vinegars that you can start with available in stores. Different brands of the following vinegars will all differ in taste and quality. It’s best to sample each vinegar to decide which suits your palate best. Apple Cider Vinegar–A fruity vinegar, this works well with stronger herbs. It makes fine vinegar for salad dressings. The better apple cider vinegars are made from whole apples.

Unfiltered, organic apple cider vinegar is available in most health food stores. Beware of ‘cider’ vinegars that contain any added coloring, as they are of lower quality. They are actually caramel colored distilled vinegar with a small amount of concentrated cider stock added.Champagne Vinegar–This vinegar is made from still wine from the grapes used to make champagne, usually Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Champagne vinegar is soft, smooth and delicate. We use champagne vinegar when combining it with the more subtly flavored fines herbes. And they are excellent for making vinegar from the flowers of lavender and sweet violets. Champagne vinegar also makes a wonderful vinaigrette to drizzle over seared seafood, particularly salmon.

Distilled Vinegar–While it’s the most readily available vinegar, distilled vinegar is too harsh to use in herbal vinegars, as it will mask the flavor of the herbs. Spend a little more and use one of the other vinegars listed. Red Wine Vinegar–Made from red wine, this works equally as well as white wine vinegar and has an appetizing red color. The rich depth of red wine vinegar works better with stronger herbs. It is excellent for vinegars to be used for marinating red meat, and for vinaigrettes where the color is very appetizing.Rice Wine Vinegar–Made from cooked rice, this vinegar has a sweet flavor, and makes a very nice herbal vinegar salad dressing. Its mild, sweet taste is excellent with milder herbs and flowers. Because it often contains sugar and salt, it is usually sold as

‘seasoned’ rice wine vinegar, which works fine for herbal vinegars.Sherry Vinegar–Imported from Jerez in southeastern Spain, sherry vinegar is rich, smooth and mellow, and blends well with stronger herbs like rosemary. It has a slightly nutty flavor with a sweet aftertaste. It’s a bit more expensive because it is aged in oak, much like balsamic vinegar. Sherry vinegar blends well with other oils for marinades, salad dressings and vinaigrettes.White Wine Vinegar–Made from white wine, this vinegar will work fine for most of the herbal vinegars you make. It’s balance and acidity blend well with the herbs, allowing the full herbal bouquet to be tasted. As a general rule, we like to use white wine vinegar when the final color is important, like when using purple basil,

which will yield a lovely rose-colored vinegar. The mellow flavor of white wine vinegar blends well with light meats and fish.

Bottling Your VinegarsWhether you plan to make your vinegars for your own use, or give them away as gifts, start keeping clear bottles from foods you use in your home. Clear wine bottles, syrup bottles, and any other attractive food grade bottles can be recycled into fine vessels for your vinegars. We often use the bottles that the base vinegar came in. Soak off the labels in warm, soapy water. Also, many import shops offer a wide variety of shapes and sizes of clear bottles you can use, as well as the corks you will use to cap the bottles. Do not use metal caps, as they will interact with the vinegar. Bottles that come with attached porcelain caps work well too. Just make sure to properly sterilize all bottles by placing them

in a large pot of water and bringing the water up to boiling for a few minutes. Then let them cool and place them upside down on paper towels to fully drain, and then right side up to air dry. Your bottles must be completely dry before you fill them with your vinegar, as water will cloud your herbal vinegar.

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