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Drink

To Make Whiskey Vinegar

A fermented liquid made by mixing water, whiskey, molasses, and yeast, then aging it in a keg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Make Whiskey Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the water, whiskey, molasses, and yeast in a keg.

  2. Let the mixture stand in the sun for one month.

  3. If making in winter, place the keg by a fire.

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

Whiskey
Provides the alcohol that yeast and bacteria convert into acetic acid, giving the vinegar its sourness.
Orleans molasses
Supplies sugars that the yeast ferments first into alcohol, which later becomes acid.
Yeast
Starts the fermentation that turns the sugars and alcohol into the base for vinegar.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand in the sun for one month. Vinegar forms through slow fermentation, and it needs steady warmth and time to develop. Cool conditions, especially in winter, slow the process, which is why the record suggests placing the keg by a fire.

“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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