White-gooseberry Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Mash the gooseberries with a wooden mallet or potato masher.
Add 2 gallons of water for every peck of fruit.
Stir well for 1 hour.
Ferment
Let the mixture ferment for 3 weeks.
Stir the mixture daily.
Strain and age
Strain off the liquid.
Add 1 lb of loaf sugar, 1 tablespoon of fresh yeast, and 1 tablespoon of treacle for every gallon.
Allow it to work for 3 to 4 days.
Transfer the mixture into a clean barrel.
Seal it for 12 months.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Lightly colored ripe gooseberries
- Provide the fruit base, flavor and natural acidity that the vinegar is built from.
- Loaf sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds sweetness to the mixture.
- Fresh yeast
- Converts sugar into alcohol, starting the fermentation that later becomes vinegar.
- Treacle
- Adds molasses-like depth of flavor and extra sugar for fermentation.
The step that matters
Stir the mixture daily during the first fermentation. Regular stirring keeps the fruit mash in contact with air and evenly distributed, which supports steady fermentation and helps prevent a surface film or spoilage from forming.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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