Fruit vinegar

Most of the vinegar we get is from grains, primarily corn. And while it can be used for many things (being distilled and essentially colorless) it also has most of the nutrients and yumminess taken out of it.

And since I crave vinegar anyway (see my post about vinegar craving here) I use a lot of it.

A while back I was speaking to a friend on Modern Survival Blog and he started talking about creating his own vinegar. While I'd been vaguely aware that this kind of thing is done "by others," up to that point I hadn't connected the possibility to myself. It was the middle of apple season and I decided to try it.

I took the peels and the cores that didn't have worm yuck, and put them in a wide mouthed gallon jar covered with water.

And I waited. And waited. Two months later they still smelled like apples and there was no sign of fermentation. I was told the temperature in the house was too low and I started consciously trying to keep the bottle warmer and a few weeks later I started seeing bubbles. Then more bubbles!

The vinegar smell when it began was quite distinctive. It still smelled like apples, but also like vinegar. When I got around to testing it, the baking soda bubbled just like it did for the distilled corn vinegar. So the acid level is high.

And I've caught the bug.

I now have apple cider vinegar and apricot vinegar sitting on the kitchen counter, and pear vinegar in the big pickle bottle fermenting.

Yum!

Pear Vinegar Video