Name: White Vinegar
Ingredients: five gallons of water; two gallons of whiskey; two pounds of powdered charcoal; a quart of strong yeast

White Vinegar

Ingredients

five gallons of water
two gallons of whiskey
two pounds of powdered charcoal
a quart of strong yeast

Directions

Make the mixture

Put into a cask a mixture composed of five gallons of water, two gallons of whiskey, and a quart of strong yeast, stirring in two pounds of powdered charcoal.

Ferment

Place it where it will ferment properly, leaving the bung loose until the fermentation is over, but covering the hole slightly to keep out dust and insects.
After four months, draw it off; you will have fine vinegar, clear and colourless.

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Whiskey: Supplies the alcohol that yeast and bacteria convert into acetic acid, the sharp sourness of vinegar.
Strong yeast: Starts the fermentation that drives the alcohol conversion during the long rest.
Powdered charcoal: Adsorbs impurities and colour, helping the finished vinegar come out clear and colourless.

“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.