Vinegar is an essential staple in most kitchens, and if you’re interested in forgoing the store-bought variety and making it yourself, the process is easier than you think. There are many different types of vinegar; fortunately, they all take just a few simple ingredients and a little bit of your time.
Vinegar is made when sugars in a liquid ferment and create acetic acid. The easiest way to do this at home is to collect fruit juice in a dark container and store it in a cool, dark place for six months, strain it, and the remaining liquid is homemade vinegar.
You can quickly master making homemade vinegar if you know what to do.
What Is Vinegar?
Vinegar is created when bacteria combine with oxygen to make acetic acid. Everything we’re doing in the steps below is to cause this fermentation process to happen in a controlled manner so we can make vinegar at home.
The Basics of Making Vinegar
People who make vinegar typically want apple cider vinegar, which is one of the most versatile vinegar out there as well as one of the healthiest. Getting started is simple because you take several nice, tart apples and wash and peel them.
The good thing is that when making vinegar, you don’t have to throw away any part of those apples. Instead, you can keep the cores, stems, skins, and everything else.
Once you get all parts of the apples cored and cut, you can mash them together by using either your hands or an electric juicer. At this point, the juice will be the result.
After the apple pieces are thoroughly drained of the juice, you need to strain that juice, and you can do this in one of two ways. First, you can strain it through a muslin bag, an easy and inexpensive item to find. Or, you can line a potato ricer with a cloth and use your hands to press the juice out.
Storing the Juice and Waiting
Now comes the easy part. Take some glass jugs that are dark in color and wash them thoroughly. Then pour the juice into those jugs and top them off with several layers of cheesecloth, which you can tighten by using a rubber band or even a piece of string.
Place the jugs in a dark, cool place and keep them there for six months or so. After that time, you can strain the liquid once again, transfer it to a bottle, and close it with a cork.
If you like, you can also take some sweet cider, place it in an open jug, then store it in a warm place for several weeks. After that amount of time, it will have gradually turned into vinegar.
More Options
If you’re peeling apples or baking apple pies, you can take your cores, bruised fruit, and peelings, place them into a wide-mouthed jar or crock, then cover everything with cold water. Cover the jar and put it in a warm place for a while.
While waiting for the taste to be just right, you can add more apple parts from time to time and taste it now and then to see if it’s where you want it. When it is, strain it, bottle it, and cork it.
You can even consider the part that thickens on the top of the concoction the “mother” part, which means you can save that part of it to start yet another batch of vinegar. You can also add it to mead to make honey vinegar or transform homemade wines made of vegetables, berries, or fruit into wine vinegar.
Adding Herbs
Of course, you can easily dress up your apple or wine vinegar by adding various herbs. Fresh herbs are the best, of course, and all you have to do is take herbs such as tarragon, mint, dill, or basil and wash them thoroughly.
Next, throw away the stems and lay the herbs on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Dry the herbs in the sun or place the tray in a warm oven on very low heat until the herbs begin to curl.
Once the herbs are dried, crumble them up and place about a cupful into each pint of vinegar. Pour them into clear jars, cover them, and put them on a sunny window sill.
Each day, shake the bottles up once or twice and keep them on the window sill for roughly two weeks. Whenever the taste is what you want it to be, go ahead and strain, bottle, and cork them.
If you’re using fresh garlic cloves to make your herb vinegar, don’t forget to throw away the cloves after 24 hours. You can also mix and match the herbs if you like because this is the perfect way to get a unique flavor and taste that is just what you want it to be. Regardless of the type of vinegar you choose, you’ll find that you made it yourself and enjoy its flavor even more.
A Few Things to Remember
If you make your vinegar, there are a few tips to keep in mind to ensure it’s successful. These include the following:
- Ensure the fermentation occurs when the apple pieces are in a dark jar. Light-colored jars won’t dwon’tause fermentation can only happen in the dark.
- It is also essential to cover the jars with cheesecloth and secure them with strings or rubber bands. The fermentation process requires air, but the cheesecloth ensures that the air gets in, but the bugs and dust do not.
- A “dark, “warm place” means” maintaining a temperature of 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit or 15 to 27 Centigrade. Fermentation occurs much more quickly when the temperature is warm because warm temps are required to convert the alcohol into acetic acid.
- Don’t rush the fermentation process if you don’t have to. Wait three to four weeks before you taste it for the first time. You can even smell it at first to see if it smells fermented. If it doesn’t smell that way, you can likely wait a little longer to taste it.
Conclusion
Making homemade vinegar is a simple and rewarding process that can be done with just a few ingredients and some patience. The key is to allow the sugar in the liquid to ferment and create acetic acid through a controlled fermentation process.
Apple cider vinegar is a popular and versatile option, but vinegar can also be made with other fruit, vegetables, or herbs. Following these steps and storing the mixture in a cool, dark place for several months, you can easily create homemade vinegar at home.
