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Sugar Vinegar, Strong

A fermented vinegar made from water, sugar, yeast, and toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Sugar Vinegar, Strong

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar liquor

  1. In a stewpan, combine 1 gallon of water with 7 pounds of coarse moist sugar.

  2. Stir for 1-2 minutes, then boil for 30 minutes, removing scum as it rises.

  3. Pour the mixture out and let it cool to 60-65°F (15-18°C).

Ferment and bottle

  1. Add a thick piece of toast covered with fresh yeast.

  2. Let it stand for 2 days, stirring frequently.

  3. Transfer to a cask, cover the bung-hole with paper, and place in a warm, dry area.

  4. Once ready, bottle the vinegar for use.

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

Coarse moist sugar
Provides the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol, which then becomes acetic acid.
Fresh yeast
Starts the fermentation that converts the sugar solution into alcohol.
Toast
Carries the fresh yeast and gives the mixture a surface on which fermentation begins.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding yeast. The liquid must cool to a warm room temperature before yeast goes in. Hot liquid kills yeast cells, so fermentation may never start, and the sugar solution spoils rather than turning into vinegar.

“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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