To Make Vinegar in Three Weeks
Ingredients
Directions
Set up the batch
Combine molasses, yeast, and warm rain water in a jug or keg.
Cover the opening with gauze to keep out flies and allow air in.
In hot weather, place it in the sun; in cold weather, set it by the stove or in a chimney corner.
After three weeks, you will have good vinegar.
Keep it going
When the vinegar level gets low, pour out some for use and refill the jug with the same proportions.
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
- Molasses
- Supplies sugars that the yeast ferments, and later the vinegar bacteria convert, into acid.
- Yeast
- Starts the fermentation that turns the sugars into alcohol, which the vinegar then forms from.
The step that matters
Cover the opening with gauze. The cover must keep insects out while still letting air in. Vinegar forms through oxidation, so an airtight container slows or stops the process, and an open one invites contamination.
“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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