To Make Vinegar in Three Weeks
Ingredients
Directions
Start the batch
Combine molasses, yeast, and rainwater in a jug or keg.
Cover the opening with gauze to keep out flies while allowing air in.
In warm weather, place the jug in the sun; in cold weather, set it by the stove or in a chimney corner.
Finish and refill
After three weeks, your vinegar will be ready.
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 the sugars that fermentation converts first into alcohol and then into acetic acid.
- Yeast
- Starts the fermentation that turns the sugars into alcohol for the vinegar bacteria to work on.
The step that matters
Cover the opening with gauze. Acetic acid bacteria need oxygen to turn alcohol into acetic acid, so air must reach the liquid. The gauze lets air in while keeping flies and other contaminants out.
“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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