Methods for making vinegars

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Methods for Making Herbal VinegarsDepending on how much time you have to complete your herbal vinegars, you can use either the longer cool-steep, or quicker warm-steep method.

The Cool-Steep MethodIf you plan far enough ahead, the cool-steep method produces some of the best herbal vinegars. If you want to make enough for gifts, you can make big batches in large glass jars (sun tea jars work well) or plastic food grade gallon jugs. For smaller batches, mayonnaise jars work fine, but place some plastic wrap over the mouth of the jar, as the vinegar will interact with the metal lid.

Gather the fresh herbs you’re going to use, and wash and dry them well. As a general rule, we use 1 cup of herbs for 2 cups of vinegar. But we’ve enjoyed slightly stronger vinegars using equal parts herbs to vinegar. Bruise and crumple the herbs up a bit, and place them in your sterilized glass jar. Then fill the jar with the room-temperature vinegar, cover, and place it in a cool, dark area for a few weeks to let the herbs’ flavors steep into the vinegar. Shake the jar every few days. After about three weeks, taste the vinegar every few days by putting a few drops on some plain bread, until the flavor is just right.

Straining the VinegarWhen the vinegar is done steeping, you will need to strain it to remove any tiny particles that will cloud your vinegar. Place an unbleached, flat-bottomed (basket) coffee filter in a metal strainer. Then pour your vinegar through the coffee filter into a large measuring cup. Val Reddemann of Compliments of Nature (www.compnat.com) recommends unbleached coffee filters because white coffee filters have invariably been bleached with chlorine bleach. The bleaching process produces toxic Dioxins, which are left in the paper. Unbleached coffee filters are available at most grocery stores, and be sure to get the flat-bottomed ones sold a ‘basket filters’ that will fit in the strainer, not

‘cone’ filters.

Filling the BottlesNow, you want to make a beautiful presentation of your bottle. Pick a fresh sprig of each of the herbs you’ve used to steep your vinegar, wash and dry them well, and add them to each of your sterilized, dry glass bottles. Using a funnel, pour the vinegar into the bottles. Then tightly cap the bottles with corks. Now your ready to decorate the outside of the bottles with some of the methods suggested later.

The Warm-Steep MethodIf you suddenly discover it’s mid-December and you want to give some herbal vinegars as gifts, or you don’t have a lot of time to make your herbal vinegars, this warm-steep method will work fine. Just be careful not to boil the vinegar, or some of its acidity will be destroyed, thereby changing its flavor. Also, boiling vinegar will adversely affect the fresh herbs over which it is poured. Warming the vinegar will speed the steeping process, but just don’t be in too much of a hurry.

Follow all of the above steps in the cool-steep method, except the vinegar you add to the herb-filled steeping jar must be heated to just below a simmer. Pour the heated vinegar into the jar of herbs. This will quickly impart the herbs’ flavor into the vinegar. Then let the vinegar and herbs cool to room temperature before tightly covering the jar, and place it in a cool, dark area. Begin tasting the vinegar daily in about 3 days. If the flavor gets too strong, you can dilute it with some of the plain base vinegar.

Sealing Your BottlesIf you are using corks to seal your bottles, and you will be shipping your herbal vinegars for holiday gifts, (or you just want to add a decorative touch to your own bottles), make certain the corks in the bottles are well sealed. This is easily done with beeswax. Tap the corks into the bottles, and make certain the corks have tightly sealed the bottles by holding them upside down for a few seconds and checking that no vinegar is seeping out. In a small pan, heat the beeswax until it liquefies. (Lining the pan with a double layer of aluminum foil make for easy cleanup.) Then dip the tops of the bottles into the melted beeswax. Dip the bottles about an inch past the tip of the bottle to completely cover the

cork and some of the bottle. Let the wax cool and harden for a few seconds, and then repeat several times until you have a nice thick layer of wax completely covering the cork and mouth of the bottle. Beeswax is available from honey vendors at Farmers’ Markets. If you can’t find it, just melt down a solid, unscented pure beeswax candle.

Suzi

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

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