I have been making vinegar of all kinds for several years and am always experimenting with new fruits, herbs, and blends.
Though vinegar is incredibly easy to make, the easiest one is raisin - which also happens to be my favorite because it seems the most versatile. Its smooth, rich flavor and aroma makes it go so well in sautees, salad dressings, making vinegar based tinctures, adding to homemade breads, and much more.
All you need to get started is just three ingredients - at most:
- fruit (whole berries or raisins, sliced fruits, or even just the scraps like peels, cores, and pits from apples, peaches, pears, et ceterea)
- A good filtered water (NOT city tap water). I use rain water filtered with a Berkey.
- Organic cane sugar (not needed with fruits that have a high sugar content like raisins)
When making vinegar with berries or raisins, start with a half gallon jar and fill the bottom up to at least 1"-2" inch deep when using raisins and 2" -3" deep when using fresh berries. Add 1/4 cup organic cane sugar to your berries but omit this if using raisins. As you can see in the photo above, I used just over a cup of my home grown blueberries I had frozen from a couple of years ago.
Fill your jar about half full of water and stir with a wooden spoon or chop stick to blend in the sugar and help get it dissolving. I do not worry about it all dissolving, it will in time anyway, mostly just make sure it is mixed well.
One can choose to add a bit of mother from other vinegars if they choose but aside from a recent experiment with a one of my batches of floral vinegar, this is something I never do and always end up with great vinegar.
Top off the jar the rest of the way with water. You can choose to use a grape leaf or some kind of weight to hold the fruits down under the water but I never bother with this as they always seem to do just fine with out it. If at some point you do develop mold at the top, just leave it until the process is finished and them carefully lift the top layer out before straining.
Cover your jar with a cloth and hold in place with a rubber band. This is to keep out bugs and dust while still allowing the gases to escape during the process.
Set your jar in a warm place I prefer on top of my fridge as it is not only out of the way, but stay warm there. Leave there for the next thirty days and just forget about it during that time. After 30 days, check to see if it is tart. If it is bubbly, it is not quite done and may need another week or so.
Once it is finished, strain out the fruits and give to your chickens if you have them (they will love them!) or throw in your compost.
Here is a photo of a current batch of raisin vinegar that is very bubbly and still has a couple more weeks to go and a bottle from completed batch of raisin vinegar I made some time last year and it is wonderful!
I will post updates on my current batches of vinegar once they are completed so you can see how they look when finished. I also plan to do a post on how to use your fruit scraps to make vinegar and if you have not seen it yet, here is my how-to on making floral and herb vinegar: Floral Vinegar
Here is the blackberry vinegar I made a few years ago, I just love the color!
Hope you enjoyed this post and that you will give that vinegar making a try! ~Heidi
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