To Make Vinegar Without Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Combine molasses, yeast, and warm rainwater in a jar or keg.
Cover the opening with gauze to keep out flies and allow air in.
In hot weather, place in the sun; in cold weather, set by the stove or in a chimney corner.
After three weeks, the vinegar will be ready.
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
- Provides sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, which then becomes acetic acid as vinegar.
- Yeast
- Starts the fermentation that converts the sugars in the liquid into alcohol.
- Warm rainwater
- Dissolves the molasses and carries the yeast, giving the mixture its liquid base.
The step that matters
Keeping the mixture at a suitable temperature. Fermentation slows in cold conditions and the mixture is more likely to spoil in very hot conditions. Placing the container in the sun in hot weather or near the stove in cold weather helps keep the temperature in a workable range while air reaches the surface.
“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.
More vinegar recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipes
Lemonade126 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.