Skip to main content
Drink

Gooseberry Vinegar

A homemade vinegar made by fermenting ripe gooseberries with water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Gooseberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bruise the ripe gooseberries.

  2. Combine the gooseberries and water in a container and stir well.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  4. Strain the mixture through a canvas bag.

Finish

  1. Add 1 pound of brown sugar to every gallon of the strained liquid.

  2. Stir well before transferring to a cask.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Gooseberries
Provide the fruit flavour and acidity that give the vinegar its character.
Water
Dilutes the fruit and carries its flavour as the mixture stands and ferments.
Brown sugar
Feeds the fermentation that turns the sugars into acetic acid, and adds a molasses sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 24 hours. The standing period lets wild yeasts and bacteria begin fermenting the sugars in the fruit. Covering the container and keeping it at a steady room temperature helps this start reliably.

“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.

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes