[Herbalist] A&S documentation help

[Gaylin Walli]

Racehel and everyone, here is a portion of research from my entry when
I submitted my vinegar to competition a few years back (has it it been
that long? wow). The sources may be of most use to you, though I'm not
sure on your timing for when you competition is, Rachel.

All I ask for anyone reading and possibly using this is that you don't
use it verbatim. Obviously feel free to quote me if you'd like and if
you have questions, ask or email and ask off list. The quoted text
below will be missing some of the footnotes as mine don't come across
very well from the original I created and I can't seem to get my PDF
generator to work right now. Hope this helps. -- Iasmin

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Etymology and Description of Vinegar

The word “vinegar” is first found in the Middle English (ME) with the
spelling vinegre. This ME form was borrowed from the Old French (OFr)
with a slightly different spelling, vinaigre, but apparently the same
meaning. The source of the OFr word was the compounding of two Latin
terms: vinum, meaning “vine,” and aigre, meaning “sour.”

Although the word “vinegar” denotes a number of different soured
liquids, the term was used originally to denote only soured wine.
Today, that meaning has come to include not only soured wines, but also
soured ciders (made from any fruit juice, but typically apples); malted
grains, such as barley and oats (for malt vinegar); and the distilled
white vinegar of the modern grocery store that comes from industrial
alcohol (whose source is ultimately petroleum).

Regardless of the term’s etymology or the liquid’s source, vinegar’s
chemical description is simply that of a watered-down solution of
acetic acid obtained by the fermentation of natural sugars into an
alcoholic liquid and a second fermentation of that liquid into vinegar
itself in the presence of the Acetobacter bacteria.

Plain vinegar tastes sour and smells slightly pungent, with various
other aftertastes and odors dependent on the source of the alcohol, any
additives to the alcohol, and the containers in which it is turned into
vinegar and subsequently aged.

Vinegar’s Uses and Production

 From recipe ingredient to preservative during mummification, each
historical use of vinegar highlights the importance of a substance
whose initial creation is as ancient as the brewing of alcoholic
beverages. Among all the historical uses of vinegar, the ones that
interest me most are those related to food and medicine.

The Babylonians and the Egyptians were among the first to use vinegar
as a condiment for food, serving vegetables with oil and vinegar.
Western Europeans knew its use as a condiment as well. The Greek poet
Archestratus authored what is arguably Europe’s oldest cookbook, a poem
of which we have less than 70 known fragments, called The Life of
Luxury. In this poem, Archestratus mentions vinegar several times, not
only as a condiment and sauce additive for his fish dishes: “Now
whenever you stew something... within the sides of a hollow cooking
pot, do not add water [text corrupt] or wine vinegar, but pour on it
only oil and dried cumin together with fragrant leaves...” (p. 60).
Here, however, he is mentioning specifically when not to use the liquid.

Noted military author Vegetius briefly wrote about the use of vinegar
when he discussed prevention of shortages for military supplies.
Specifically, Vegetius says “Shortages of grain, wine-vinegar, wine and
salt should be avoided at all times” (p. 68). Presumably whether used
for the Roman soldier’s electrolyte-balancing drink of water and
vinegar, called posca, or used as an ingredient in cooking, it was
important enough that Vegetius mentions it not in the sections of text
discussing what shortages should be avoided in winter or summer but “at
all times.”

Dioscorides’s seminal 1st century A.D. work, De Materia Medica, devotes
no less than four chapters to the medicinal uses, both internal and
external, of vinegars. John M. Riddle (1985) suggests with many other
scientific authors, that Discorides’s attention is likely due to the
antiseptic properties of the liquid (p. 145).

Where Dioscorides details the production of wine that can be turned
into vinegar, food lover and early Italian cook, Platina, details
Pliny’s thoughts on the source of vinegar saying

"Acetum ex vino fit, si vas fuerit vacuum et non clausum. Aer enim ex
vacuo elicit potentiam eius; nam cum vinum semina caloris in se habeat
ac vapidum fiat, transit in vitium quod acetum dicitur adeo frigidum ut
ante omnes humores flammam extinguat..." (Milham, p. 166).

Translation: "Vinegar is made from wine if the container has an empty
space and is not closed. Air draws its strength from the empty space,
for when wine has the seeds of heat in it and becomes spoiled, it
passes into an imperfect state which is called vinegar, so cold that
it, before all other humors, extinguishes flame..." (Milham, p. 167).

He goes on to relate the story of Carthaginian general Hannibal’s
difficult passage through the Alps which was aided by using vinegar to
break heated rocks that blocked his path.

It is in Gervase Markham’s work that we find a very succinct
description of how to make vinegar. Specifically he tells the housewife
to brew strong ale, cool it, add yeast, enclose it in a cask with a
very tight fitting lid, throw in a handful of parched beans (presumably
for a source of bacteria), and flavor it with all manner of ingredients
before setting it in the sun for four months to cure. Without the
additives, Markham’s production of vinegar shows little difference from
that of naturally occurring vinegar from wine gone sour.

References

Period and Near-Period Sources

Archestratus. [4th Cent. B.C./1994]. The Life of Luxury. John Wilkins &
Shaun Hill (Editors). Great Britain: Prospect Books. ISBN 090732553X.

Markham, Gervase. (c. 1615?/1998). The English Housewife. Michael Best
(Editor). Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN
0-7735-1103-2.

Platina. (c.1465/1998). On Right Pleasure and Good Health [A Critical
Edition and Translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine]. Mary
Ella Milham (Editor and Translator). Tempe, Arizona: Medieval and
Renaissance Texts and Studies. ISBN 0-86698-208-6.

Vegetius, Publius Flavius. (c. 400?/1996). Vegetius: Epitome of
Military Science (2nd Rev. Ed.). N. P. Milner (Translator). Liverpool,
England: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-910-X.
Modern Sources

Riddle, John M. (1985). Dioscorides and Medicine. Austin, Texas:
University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-71544-7.