Sugar Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Boil the spring water with the coarse sugar and skim thoroughly.
Add 1 quart of cold water to every gallon of hot mixture.
When cool, spread yeast on a piece of toast and add it to the mixture.
Ferment
Stir the mixture daily for nine days.
Transfer to a barrel and place it in a sunny spot, covering the bung-hole with a piece of slate.
Make this in March; it will be ready in six 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sugar
- Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, which then turns into vinegar.
- Yeast
- Starts the fermentation that converts the sugary liquid into alcohol.
- Spring water
- Forms the liquid base in which the sugar dissolves and ferments.
The step that matters
Skim the boiled mixture thoroughly. Skimming removes foam and impurities that form while the sugar water boils, which helps keep the liquid clean for fermentation. Leftover scum can introduce unwanted microbes and off flavours as the mixture sits for months.
“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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