[Sca-cooks] Vinegar Question

[Mercy Neumark]

Rose related the sad tale of the death of a vinegar mother and
asked:

>So, if I should ever encounter such a thing again, how
>do I start making vinegar?

My apprentice brother, THL Donal O'Brian has a write up on making vinegar.
I can ask him if I can post it to this list for you all.  It's VERY
detailed, but here is a basic explaination of it.

Two ways of making vinegar (this is a very loose explaination of it):

1.  Take said wine that has 5 to 7% alcohol content (you can take wines that
have more alocohol, but you'd have to dilute it with water), pour in
wide-mouth in containor (glass, wood, ceramic is good but don't use
plastic).  Replace lid with cheese cloth, making sure that the cloth is
secure (use a rubber band if you like) and not touching the liquid (this
should allow air get into the jar).  The air will hopefully introduce the
right bacterias that will cause the wine to turn to vinegar.

2.  Do everything as above, but introduce some "Mother of Vinegar" into the
wine...that's the bacteria that turns the wine into vinegar.  This is the
speedier process as far as I can tell.

Vinegar can take anywhere between 2-12 weeks to make.  Vinegar needs to be
stored in room temperature (70-90 at the most)our of direct sunlight.  The
"Mother of Vinegar" is a filmy substance and if its working, you can tell by
the aroma of the mixture...it will start to smell like vinegar in a few
weeks, that's for sure! ;)

That's the basics...hopefully that helped. :)

--Arte

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