Prepping – Vinegar

Vinegar is one of those items that should be in every prep pack. It’s useful for SO many things! What can you use vinegar for?

• making drinks (shrub, sekanjabin, switchel, haymakers, etc.)
• baking (you can use it to make a buttermilk substitute)
• all purpose cleaner (AMAZING on windows)
• preservation (pickles, meats, etc.)
• descaling (clean scale from coffee makers, kettles, etc.)
• removes stains (especially yellowing along collar lines)
• weed killer (on its own it’s okay, mixed with Dawn detergent it’s better than most commercial mixes)
• insect repellent (I’ve read this one but haven’t tried it)
• wound cleaning
• treating nail fungus
• cleans chrome and helps windows be no-frost
• soothes a sunburn
• great for disinfecting cutting boards, especially wooden ones
• white vinegar in laundry helps remove general stains

I’m sure I missed stuff, but man, we use vinegar all over the place in our house. From salads to shower drains (where it kills off those little irritating gnats that come from drains), it’s basically an all purpose item to have in your go bag.

But what if you don’t have vinegar on hand? Fear not, it’s not actually difficult to make!

Making vinegar from scratch can be such a sinch, and coupled with its indispensability in the kitchen, makes it a worthwhile endeavor. The process of getting to vinegar is simple:

1. start with a sugary liquid
2. let the sugars ferment into alcohol by way of our friendly local wild yeast
3. then with continued air exposure the alcohol will be eaten up by native acetobacter making it into vinegar. Boom!

An even simpler overview:

1. crush fruit in your fermentation vessel of choice
2. leave it be until it tastes like vinegar.
3. strain the solids. So easy!

From: Ferment Pitsburgh

Basically, vinegar is made from scraps, the stuff you’d normally toss in the garbage. You can use apple cores, skins, bruised stuff even. You can use old wine that’s already starting to turn to vinegar, too.

A very basic apple cider vinegar recipe that I have used:

Choose a large glass (or other non-reactive) container with a lid, and clean it well with vinegar and water, then rinse thoroughly. Don’t use soap as it can leave a funny flavor in the vinegar after. Fill the jar half way with apple bits. You can use cores, stems, skins, or whole apples. You can collect apple “bits” in the freezer until you have enough, but make sure to have at least a little fresh apple stuff in your jar. Add room temperature or lukewarm water (keep track of how much by using a measuring cup for adding it) until the jar is full to the neck. Then, add in one tablespoon of sugar per cup of water that you added, then stir thoroughly until it’s all dissolved. If you happen to have some apple cider vinegar already, add a glug or two to the mix. If you have a “vinegar mother” (a sort of pancake looking blob that forms in the jar, like a SCOBY, or the “stuff” at the bottom of a jar of organic apple cider vinegar), you can use that instead. While it isn’t absolutely necessary, it will help keep your new batch from forming mold (which isn’t damaging to the vinegar at all, but puts some people off).

Once the jar is full, cover it with a bit of breathable fabric. Cheesecloth works okay (though sometimes fruit flies can get in), or a lint free towel, or even a clean bit of old tee shirt material. You can hold it on with a jar ring, if you’re using a canning jar, or just use an elastic band or a bit of string to tie it in place. Now, find a dark spot to set your jar in, where the temperature will be between 70 and 75*F. You need access to it so don’t bury it in a closet or anything. If you don’t have a place to put it, you can put the jar into a dark pillow case or wrap it in a dark towel to keep the light out.

Once or twice a day, stir your jar of apple bits. This stops mold from forming and helps distribute the sugars and get the fermentation going. If you miss a day, don’t panic. It’s still good. Just stir as soon as you’re able. The apples are going to turn brown, and the water will get cloudy. This is what it’s supposed to do! You should eventually begin to see some bubbles, and there might be a layer of yellowish white scum in the bottom. This is all as it should be. By the end of the second week, some of the apples will probably sink to the bottom, bubbling may stop, and the entire batch will be very cloudy colored.

After two full weeks of daily stirring, it’s time to strain. Using cheesecloth (or that old tee shirt) in a fine sieve, filter out all the apples. The apples can be composted or thrown away. The liquid should go into a glass jar similar to (or the same as) the original one. If you use the same jar, be sure to clean it well with vinegar before re-using it. Cover the jar with the towel or tee shirt again, just as you did the first two weeks. Set the jar in a dark, warm place again.

Now it’s time to hurry up and wait. You’ll be waiting at least one full month before you check it. At the end of the first 30 days, pull out your jar and take a peek. It might have developed a SCOBY on top, which I mentioned before. If you have another batch of vinegar to start, toss some of that in. Otherwise, feed it to your chickens or just throw it away. Taste your vinegar. If it tastes good, then you just need to bottle it up and cap it very tightly. If it doesn’t taste strong enough, put it back in the dark again. If you want to check pH balance, vinegar should be about a 2 or 3 (there are strips you can get to test if you like).

Bottled and tightly capped, this vinegar will keep for up to five years if kept in a relatively cool, dark place (pantry, root cellar, etc.). In a fridge, it could last almost indefinitely.

Cultured Guru has another recipe, as well.