I did a quick search but didn't find any threads on making vinegar at home. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good book and/or website on making your own vinegars?

quote:

Originally posted by Eric Aarseth:
I did a quick search but didn't find any threads on making vinegar at home. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good book and/or website on making your own vinegars?

http://mudabone.com/recipe/index.php?title=Homemade_Vinegar

and

http://www.essortment.com/all/makingflavored_rbxw.htm

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rick Hughes,

The Oak Barrel (homemade beer/wine store) also has ingredients and kits for vinegar making. If you can afford the price difference, go with the oak barrels verses the demi-johns, the different oaks adds different flavors.

Linky

Try Wild Fermentation for a reference.

I used to make vinegar often when I was in restaurants, mostly various wine and berry vinegars. Now, I sometimes make pineapple or coconut vinegar or, for the former, sometimes simply flavor rice vinegar with pineapple trimmings. It depends on whether I have pineapples (I grow a few) available.

Recipe: Pineapple Vinegar
From Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

1/4 cup sugar

Peel of 1 pineapple and any attached bits of fruit

water

cheesecloth (or old T-shirt)

glass jar



Note: Unless it's coming from your mom's backyard, you probably want to go organic here. You want pineapple vinegar, not pineapple-doused-in-poison-and-food-grade-petroleum vinegar.

1. In a jar or bowl, dissolve the sugar in 1 quart of water. Coarsely chop and add the pineapple peel. Cover with cheesecloth to keep flies out, and leave to ferment at room temperature.

2. When you notice the liquid darkening, after about 1 week, strain out the pineapple peels and discard.

3. Ferment the liquid 2 to 3 weeks more, stirring or agitating periodically, and your pineapple vinegar is ready.

Another Note: I left the peels in for about three weeks and never "agitated" and it worked just fine.

Kevin

The coconut vinegar has me intriqued. Is it the same recipe just with the coconut substituded for the pineapple or are you also adding the coconut water. I would like a strong coconut flavor and a vinegar sharpness to go with the EVOO as a salad dressing and for asian inspired BBQ recipes.

Regards

Phil

quote:

Originally posted by K Kruger:
Try Wild Fermentation for a reference.

Thanks Kevin. Amazon also had Wild Fermentation. It is on my wish list for my next book order. Apparently my wife has been interested in making homemade vinegar so we are going to give it a shot after the holidays. Probably a red wine vinegar, but knowing me I'll probably have to have a few more jars of something else going.

Nice tip on organic. Wouldn't have thought of that but probably should have. Pineapple vin in BBQ sauce sounds quite harmonious.

Wine is a good base for many fruit vinegars as well, especially berry.

Phil, I've not tried making coconut vin from the milk or flesh nor the water. I've heard using the water is possible and one would think using the flesh, either in place of the pineapple is a recipe such as the one above or by making a milk extraction, would work. Something to try. Coconut vin is made using the sap that feeds the fruit as they are formed. That's what I've used.

Wild Fermentation looks like a real treasure trove.

In a nutshell, it takes two steps to make vinegar:
(1) Sugar to Alcohol and
(2) Alcohol to Acetic Acid.
Step one takes fermentation with yeast and step two takes acetobacter, aka. mother of vinegar.
You can start with an alcoholic drink and skip step one. Or start with a sweet juice and do both steps.
Step one is the complicated one.

I'd caution against just setting a bowl of sweet fruit soup out for several weeks and hoping for the best. If your fermentation doesn't commence promptly and vigorously, it will turn funky and possibly unsafe.

This gives a nice overview and some recipies taking a "natural" approach
http://www.naturemoms.com/homemade-vinegar.html

quote:

Originally posted by K Kruger:
1. In a jar or bowl, dissolve the sugar in 1 quart of water. Coarsely chop and add the pineapple peel. Cover with cheesecloth to keep flies out, and leave to ferment at room temperature.

2. When you notice the liquid darkening, after about 1 week, strain out the pineapple peels and discard.

3. Ferment the liquid 2 to 3 weeks more, stirring or agitating periodically, and your pineapple vinegar is ready.

I'm going to get the Wild Ferment.. book, but I curious Kevin as to your opinion/experience. Mid-winter in Alaska, I don't think we have a lot of yeast spores floating about. For the first stage (I'm assuming that's the juice to alcohol stage) should I kick start with a beer or wine yeast?

Yeast is always around but, yes, you certainly could kick start the process for some speed and reliability.