The word vinegar translates to sour wine. Vinegar is an essential ingredient for any pantry. As a chef, we are always trying to enhance and improve a dish. Here is where vinegar comes in and plays a vital role. Often, I season a dish with as much acidity, as I do salt. Vinegars can be a bridge that link flavors together. Or it can be a conductor, telling each ingredient in a dish to play it’s tune and come forward in the dish to make a great orchestra of flavors. Wine vinegars are super easy to make. In a few easy steps you can have your own red, white, or cider vinegar in no time at all.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Fermentation Time: 10 to 14 days, or until the wine tastes like vinegar
Ingredients:
1 cup Wine
2 tablespoon, live raw vinegar, or vinegar mother
Step by Step
- Start with leftover wine from the night before, which often in my household, never really happens. So, if that’s the case, open another bottle of wine, start drinking some but not all of it, and save a cup for the recipe
- Place the wine in a large wide mouth mason jar.
- “Backslop” with the raw vinegar, or if you’re fortunate enough to have a vinegar mother from a previous vinegar batch, add that now.
- Stir to combine the mixture
- Place a cheesecloth over top of the mason jar and secure it with a rubber band. This prevents fruit flies from getting into the vinegar.
- Let sit at in a cool, dark place for 10 to 14 days
- Once done, put the lid on the jar and store in your pantry
Farm2ChefsTable Tip: Every day, give the jar a shake to aerate the mixture. This helps with the process of dispersing the vinegar with the wine because of the addition of oxygen. Test the wine to vinegar taste after a few days of sitting at room temperature.
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