[Sca-cooks] Floating in my vinegar

[Johnna Holloway]

Maybe it's this:
"The mother (which contains the essential bacteria needed to turn wine  
into vinegar) will appear in unpasteurized vinegars that may be right  
there in your pantry. It looks like a spongy, gelatinous disk (follows  
the shape of the bottle) near the bottom of the vinegar – and may  
cause you to think that the vinegar has spoiled – but the vinegar is  
still good, and when the mother is exposed to air in an unsealed  
container (one that allows air to reach the liquid) the reaction  
(growth) will begin that will turn wine, added to that mother, into  
vinegar."
http://www.melindalee.com/index.php?option=com_garyscookbook&Itemid=6&func=detail&id=123

see also
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/the-virtue-of-homemade-vinegar

Johnnae

On Nov 28, 2011, at 8:10 AM, Kathleen Gormanshaw wrote:

> I have a commercially bought bottle of re-wine vinegar, ingredients:  
> red wine vinegar, sulphites. It's a few months old.  It has 3 white  
> disks in it, flexible, but the same diameter of the jar. What are  
> they?  And is it safe to use?  It smells as I would expect.
> Eyrny