Vinegars have been made and used by people for thousands of years to flavor food.
In fact, traces of vinegars have been found in Egyptian urns dating back to 3,000 B.C.
Vinegars are made by adding a bacteria called acetobacter aceti to
diluted wine, ale, or fermented fruits or grains.
This creates acetic acid, which gives the liquid a sour flavor. The vinegar we buy
in the store is acetic acid in water ranging from 4 to 6 percent acid.
Hi, I'm Roxie Dinstel of the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Today, we are demonstrating how to make flavored vinegars using herbs,
fruits, spices, and fruit juice. This is a simple process that makes for a high-
quality product that can add variety to your family's meals. Research on food
preservation is an ongoing process. The United States Department of Agriculture
and the Cooperative Extension Service continuously apply new research findings
to their recommendations for food preservation techniques. The guidelines
in this module may be revised as additional knowledge is gained that may
increase the margin of safety or improve the quality of home-preserved foods.
Consult your local Cooperative Extension office annually for updated information.
To make flavored vinegar, you'll need glass bowls or plastic containers,
measuring cups and spoons, cheesecloth for straining the vinegar, jars with
two-piece lids and a boiling water canner. Supplies include herbs like
our fresh herbs that we have growing over here. We have cilantro and parsley.
We're going to need vinegars, fruit juices, spices, such as these cinnamon
sticks, and fruit. Vinegars to be flavored come in a wide variety of types based on
what the vinegars are made from and how they are made. The product you're making
will determine the type of vinegar used as the foundation. White distilled
vinegar is typically stronger and sharper than other vinegars and is used
in pickling. They usually contain about 5 percent acetic acid. Apple cider vinegar is
made from cider or apple juice and has a characteristic brownish yellow color.
Balsamic vinegar is an aromatic, aged type of vinegar made from the concentrated
juice of white grapes. It's very dark brown in color and has fine flavors
developed from years of aging. Rice vinegar is made of rice and is most
popular in East and Southeast Asia. It comes in white, which is really kind of a
light yellow color. It also comes in red and black. Wine vinegar is made from red
or white wine and is used in Mediterranean countries. Wine vinegar has
a lower acidity than white or cider vinegars. To make flavored vinegars we
recommend using either rice or wine vinegar as the foundation. Distilled
white vinegar can be successfully made into flavored vinegars, but it may be a bit
stronger, sometimes overwhelming the delicate flavors of the herbs.
By the same token, cider vinegar has a more distinctive flavor and color that
may not be as attractive with some herb combinations.
Today we're going to demonstrate how to make three different types of flavored
vinegars: a simple herb vinegar, a vinegar made with fresh fruit and herbs, and a
vinegar made with fruit juice. Begin the preparation with clean equipment and
supplies. Equipment must be clean to avoid contaminating the vinegar.
Make sure all bowls, jars, and measuring equipment are scrupulously clean.
If using a jar for the steeping, sterilize the jars by heating in boiling water
for 10 minutes. A simple herb vinegar can be easily made by just putting some
sprigs of herbs in a jar and pouring warm vinegar over them. The temperature
of the vinegar will be just below boiling, about 190 degrees.
Use three or four sprigs per 2 cups of vinegar. I've washed and dried my herb.
I'm going to put it in the jar -- place it in the bottom of my jar -- three or four
sprigs, but, again, it depends on how strong the flavor of those herbs are.
I have my vinegar. It is hot, just about boiling, so it will steep rather quickly.
I'm just going to pour it right over the top. I've chosen to use a white wine vinegar.
Turn my stove off. Now I'm going to put the lid on it and
let it steep for 3 to 4 weeks. You can also use dried herbs, and in that
case we're going to use 3 tablespoons of dried herbs per pint.
Here I have some dill and I have some red cracked pepper that would make
wonderful vinegars. At the end of the 3 weeks we're going to strain the
vinegar through a cheesecloth and discard the herbs. They do begin to look
a little rough after a while. When the herb vinegar is finished, it may be hot
water canned for 5 minutes in sterilized jars with two-piece lids.
For more information on boiling water canners, refer to the "Canning
Basics" DVD, available through the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative
Extension Service. You may also keep the vinegar tightly
covered in the refrigerator until all the vinegar is used. Now I have some
vinegars up here that I've made. The first one is a purple basil vinegar, and
as you can see, I just took the purple basil and poured the
warm vinegar over it. It has a beautiful color after steeping. And, of course, after
about 3 weeks, we did pull out all the old herbs. I also have a sage vinegar
and it's very attractive as well. It was made with dried herbs and has a
wonderful flavor. Now the third one is one that is my personal favorite.
I used edible flowers. Edible flowers can be used to flavor vinegars, and a good
example is blossoms from nasturtiums, chives, or any other edible flowers.
Simply fill the bottle with blossoms and pour the vinegar over the top.
This is a vinegar I made last summer from nasturtiums. Note the beautiful
color -- and it has a great peppery flavor from the blossoms.
Next let's make a blueberry basil vinegar that is featured in the Cooperative
Extension Service publication "Using Alaska's Wild berries and Other Wild
Products." This is a simple vinegar just like the one I just made, but it has the
addition of blueberries. The ingredients are 4 cups of fresh or frozen
blueberries, 4 cups of white wine vinegar, the zest of 1 lemon, and
1 cup of fresh basil, loosely packed. First thing we're going to do is combine our
blueberries and 1 cup of the white wine vinegar.
We're going to lightly crush the blueberries.
Bruising the fruit incorporates the flavor into the vinegar much more quickly, and as you can see,
I've used frozen blueberries and there's a lot of juice that's already loose.
Now we're going to add the remaining 3 cups of vinegar, stir it up, and then I
want to crush my basil and drop it in. Crushing releases all of those wonderful
aromatic oils so they'll be quickly incorporated into the flavor of our vinegar.
Oh man, that stuff smells great, just a picture of summertime -- a lot of basil.
Let me get the last of that out of there.
Crush it up. Aromatic oils are what give herbs their very unique flavor.
Now, we're going to stir it in, and the only thing left is our lemon zest.
I'm going to add that it. Oh gosh, it smells great.
Now we're going to cover the bowl with wax paper or plastic wrap and secure it.
Don't get any added mold spores in there. We're going to allow the vinegar to
steep in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks, stirring every 2 to 3 days.
I'm going to set that one aside and take you over here where we're going to talk
about one that I've already got finished. This is the same vinegar -- it has set for
4 weeks and it's now ready to finish. So, I've strained it through cheesecloth
to get rid of those old herbs and the extra blueberries, put it in a small pot
on top of the stove, and I brought it to a simmer. Now, I have my canning funnel in here;
you can see the hotter it is, the quicker it'll can.
I'm going to fill up my jars within 1/2 inch of the top.
This smells really good. Of course, I love the smell of blueberries in the
summertime, and this really smells good. Let's see, I haven't got quite enough in there.
Sometimes it will kind of fool you when you get that canning funnel in there,
exactly how much is in the jar. Now I'm going to put a lid on and it's all ready
to process for 10 minutes in the boiling water canner. Now after processing and
cooling, the vinegars are ready to be put in your pantry. I'll be back in a
little while when I have all these vinegars processed and finished.
The third vinegar we're going to prepare today is lowbush cranberry orange
vinegar using Alaska lowbush cranberry juice. Lowbush cranberries are also
called lingonberries. I've taken 1 cup of cranberry juice that I canned last
summer, and I'm going to put with it 1 cup of sugar.
I'm going to mix it together until it dissolves. Now the cranberry juice that I had --
I canned it last summer -- and the
recommendations for canning cranberry juice are given in the Alaska wild berry book.
It's always nice to have these wonderful products that you can use later -- that you
prepared last summer. So we're going to simmer the juice until the sugar is
dissolved. You can hear that grating sound; that tells me that my sugar is not
dissolved yet. So while I'm waiting for it to dissolve, I'm going to prepare my
spices. I have a couple of cinnamon sticks and some cloves. I'm going to pull
the ends up and tie this together. Now, the reason I'm putting them in a spice
bag is that the cheesecloth is so porous that it allows the flavors to come right
out of there, but I don't have to be fishing out all those little pieces of
cloves later. So they're all ready. My cranberries are ready and my white
wine vinegar is ready, so let's see how our juice is doing. Well, it's beginning
to dissolve. You can still hear that little bit of grittiness that tells us --
it's kind of like sand in the bottom. I always say you can always look for the
the milky look, but I can always hear the sugar, whether the sugars dissolved or not.
Okay and you can hear how all of a sudden there's just a little bit of
grittiness, not much. It's important to go ahead and dissolve that sugar
so that it'll mix easier when we put the other stuff with it. Okay, hear that?
That tells us it's all ready. We're going to add our cranberries, lowbush cranberries,
our spice bag, and 3 cups of white wine vinegar. Now we're going to bring it
back up to a boil, and once it gets to a boil, we're going to allow it to simmer for
at least 10 minutes. At the end of that 10-minute period, we're going to
remove the spice bag, cut a thin slice of orange and put it in the bottom of each
hot jar, and ladle the vinegar over the top.
It'll be processed in a boiling water bath canner for at least 10 minutes.
I'm sorry, let me say that again -- it has to be processed for 10 minutes in a boiling
water canner. Now that we've demonstrated three different types of flavored
vinegars, we hope you'll enjoy using these and trying them at home. It takes
at least 10 days for most flavors to develop and about 3 to 4 weeks for the
greatest flavor to be extracted. Crushing herbs and bruising fruit hastens the
flavoring process. Be sure to check the product development. Place a
few drops on a piece of bread and taste to evaluate the flavoring. If it's too
weak, leave it to steep a little longer. If the
flavor is too strong, it can be diluted with more of the foundation vinegar.
I'm going to finish this vinegar up; it needs to simmer just a little longer.
I'm going to can it and then we'll be back to talk about storage.
Because vinegars are highly acidic, mold is one of the few problems that can occur.
Make sure all of your equipment is spotlessly clean before starting, and
keep the vinegar covered during the steeping period to protect from mold
spores entering the product. If mold occurs in the vinegar, discard it as it is
unsafe to use. The mold may show up as a sliminess. These products have been
processed in a boiling water canner and the seals have been checked. Label with
the product, the processing time, and the date. If vinegars are properly prepared
and bottled, they're good for 3 months when stored in a cool place and
6 to 8 months if stored in the refrigerator. If the flavored vinegar
ever has mold on it or in it or signs of fermentation such as bubbling, cloudiness,
or sliminess, throw it away without using any of the vinegar for any purpose.
Vinegars can be combined with a small amount of oil and used as a salad
dressing, used in marinades, and even combined with club soda for a refreshing
beverage. Experiment with your favorite herbs and fruits to develop your own recipes.