The Sweet Taste of Sour

Flavored Vinegar in the Spotlight

By Deb Whittaker:

Move over Pepsi and Coke.  After 5000 years, vinegar drinks have morphed into the 21st century beverage of champions. Low-cal, low sugar, no chemicals and preservatives - naturally fermented vinegar comes with a long list of health and beauty benefits coveted by trendy modern day America. The practice isn't exactly new. For 50 years my great aunt started every morning with her "Christian cocktail”, a cup of hot water with some vinegar and honey.

Vinegar and its place in the fermented food craze we are witnessing now has served humans as a food preservation and purification method for millenia. What's new is paying $2.99 for a bottle of something you can make yourself at home in seconds. A simple glass of water with a splash of vinegar supplies the same panacea of health benefits renowned since the days of Babylon. Drinking vinegar-spiked beverages fell out of fashion for more modern health protocols some time ago, but, as with any trend, they are currently stronger than ever. GT’s Living Foods brought kombucha to the masses years ago when its founder was searching for a health drink for his ailing mother. Since then we started seeing centuries' old shrubs with their added sweetener and fruit in the cushiest bars across the country. Switchel, known as Haymakers' Punch, named for the field workers who swigged it, was the original energy drink, tinged with molasses, ginger and lemon. Then there's the modern day herbalists' fire cider with its powerful horseradish, garlic, and hot peppers to burn out the bugs that cause colds and flu.

However you take it, vinegar drinks claim many common and unusual benefits: enhanced digestion, clearer skin and balanced insulin among them. Vinegar is currently being explored even for its possible role in allaying depression. There are many great things to be said about vinegar for the general public, but the greatest culinary benefit awaits the home gardener whose freshest herbs and bush-ripened fruits will bring varied and interesting notes to ordinary vinegar. Chive blossoms, tarragon tips and the lesser used elderflowers are just a few of the flavors easily infused into vinegar. Here's a sample.

Purple basil vinegar

Infusing herbs in vinegar is so easy it's surprising that more people don't do it. Theoretically, you could just stuff some fresh herbs into a jar of vinegar and be done with it, but these tips will give you an even better result.

Purchase a glass bottle of natural apple cider vinegar (or white wine) and soak off the label. If you are using other containers, make certain they are food grade by using bottles that contained commercially prepared food to begin with.  Fancy bottles from hobby stores and others often contain lead which would be leached out into the vinegar. Plastic lids are preferable to metal.

Scrub your sink and counters, and wash your hands and kitchen shears. Vinegar is anti-fungal, antibacterial and antiseptic, so you don't have to be as overly concerned as when infusing oils.

• Early in the morning when the dew is still damp, snip enough fresh herb stems to fit loosely and easily in the bottle. Cut the tips or stems a couple of inches shorter than the height of the bottle. Young herbs will lend a far better flavor than large, older leaves.

• Fill a large pan with cold water and swish your herbs around briefly. (You don't want to infuse water you're going to toss.) Remove the herbs and shake off excess water. Pat them dry gently with kitchen towels. Bruising them will just help them infuse.

• Put the bottle of vinegar into the sink. Remove the cap and stuff several sprigs into the bottle, letting the herbs displace the vinegar.

• Label and date the vinegar. Trust me on this. It's easy to forget.  You will like flavored vinegar so much, you'll want to try others.

• Replace the cap; place the bottle on the counter, and turn it over and back daily for a couple of weeks. Ideally the herbs will not float. The weight of the stem will help keep the herbs immersed.

• Strain out the herbs and taste the vinegar. If you want a stronger herb flavor repeat the process with fresh herb.

Please keep in mind: the above "recipe" is for fleshy herbs. Fruit and woody herbs have a couple of different rules.

I only use dried fruit. I accidentally left my raspberries to dry on the vine one year and the vinegar I made with them tasted great! With fresh fruit, the sugar and water content can be problematic. Too much sugar will attract bugs and turn cloudy. If there is too much moisture and/or the fruit floats, it will spoil.  Delicate material has other problems. I used rose petals one year and it smelled like silage because the petals floated. Herbs are pretty foolproof as long as you don't use too much. You'll see lots of recipes that say "pack a jar". . . Yeah, NO.

Using specialty vinegars

Flavored vinegars can be used like many condiments: in soups and stews, over vegetables, even into flaky biscuits. Here are a couple of examples:

Greens with vinegar

When I was growing up, my dad insisted on having a splash of vinegar on his cooked spinach. What I didn't know then was that vinegar releases the minerals from greens to make them more bioavailable.

8 oz coarsely chopped or torn greens - spinach, chard and/or kale

large kettle of salted water

1/2 tsp purple basil apple cider vinegar

Bring the salted water to a boil. Add the greens and cook briefly until slightly wilted.

Remove the greens to a strainer, and push a spoon into them to remove as much moisture as possible.

Sprinkle the vinegar over the greens and toss.

Optional: pat of butter or spoon of olive oil

Oil and vinegar for salad

Vinegar and salt break down plant material, which is why salads get mushy so quickly. When using oil and vinegar as the base for salad dressing, toss the main ingredient first with the oil. Toss it again with the rest of the ingredients. Sprinkle the vinegar on last and toss again. This will keep the salad fresher longer. Salt to taste. A few herbed vinegars, various herbed salts, and a selection of spices to sprinkle on your salads will give you an endless supply of interesting dressings