Give salads & co. the right flavor with herb vinegar. You can even determine the grade yourself if you make it yourself.
Herbs should not be missing in any garden. You can quickly pull them up on the windowsill and use them to prepare many different delicacies for the kitchen. Fresh herbs can be used to make herbal liqueur, herbal lemonade or a flavorful herbal vinegar.
Various herbs are pickled in vinegar over a certain period of time. Of course you can easily buy vinegar in the supermarket and refine it with herbs as you like.
But the result will be much more individual if you also make the vinegar yourself. Don't worry, it's not difficult either.
The basis for the perfect vinegar
To make homemade vinegar perfect, you need mother of vinegar. Mother of vinegar is a mass of acetic acid bacteria. These form when wine or other alcoholic liquids are open for long periods of time. Here, the alcohol combined with oxygen becomes acetic acid.
Anyone who has already created this basis can start right away. Everyone else needs some time and patience. For the different types of vinegar, you will need different bases for the mother vinegar. You need wine to make wine vinegar, and apples to make apple cider vinegar.
➤ Making Wine Vinegar
For the wine vinegar you need white or red wine. You don't have to use expensive products, a cheap one from the supermarket serves the same purpose. For bottling you need an opaque container. Keep your hands away from towels or other covers. As much air as possible must reach the wine. Now put the jar in a warm place for two weeks. If the temperature is too low, simply leave the jar a few days longer.
➤ Making Apple Cider Vinegar
For apple cider vinegar you need freshly squeezed apple juice. Under no circumstances should this be cooked. Pour the juice into an opaque container that is not made of aluminum or zinc. Cover the prepared liquid with a cloth and let it ferment in a warm place.
» My tip: Vinegar ferments faster if you use rawAdd pasta.
Pickling Herbs
What herbs you want to put in the vinegar depends entirely on your own taste. In any case, they have to soak in the vinegar for about two weeks, then they can be strained. Of course, it's easiest if you choose a single herb, such as dill, parsley, tarragon, or thyme. In this case, you don't have to worry about any nasty surprises in terms of taste.
It doesn't matter whether you choose fresh or dried herbs. With both variants you achieve a delicious herbal vinegar. The following rule of thumb applies to the quantity:
➔ For one liter of vinegar, about 150 grams of fresh herbs or two tablespoons of dried herbs
➤ Popular Combinations
The combination of basil and garlic is very popular, for example. To do this, tear a handful of fresh basil into large pieces and place them in the vinegar together with one or two chopped garlic cloves.
Another variant would be a mixture with thyme and tarragon. You can also chop up these two herbs and add them to the vinegar for two weeks. If you prefer to use whole branches because of the look, you should make sure that they are completely covered with vinegar. Otherwise you could start to get moldy.