Herbal vinegars.

Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 08:45:17 EST
Sender: HERB.TREARNPC.EGE.EDU.TR
From: Christel Reeve <CReeve.BANYAN.COM>
Subject: Holiday gifts

I'd like to hear any and all herbal gifts people are planning to make for the holiday season. I've made a few mustards, some herb vinegars and some spice blends. Is anyone interested in trading recipes?

From: Michael Bailes <frgntgar.OZEMAIL.COM.AU>

getting good quality inexpensive wine vinegar seems to be the hard part of making herbal vinegars.

From: Alison Dawson <adawson.EHS.EDUHSD..CA.US>

Hmm...I have made many herbal vinegars for my own home use and have always used cidar vinegar. This, for me, has always seemed quite sufficient and is very economical. Is there any reason why cidar vinegar is not acceptable? Have I unknowingly been commiting a culinary crime?

Also, I have found bay leaf and rosmary to produce a very well flavored vinegar.

From: Jenny Kendall <ZENOMIND.AOL.COM>

>getting good quality inexpensive wine vinegar seems to be the hard part of making herbal vinegars.

Agreed. I've taken to making up my own wine vinegar. I use Heinz distilled - yes, I know - but Barbara Tropp of China Moon Cafe in San Fransisco uses it to make her vinegar concoctions, and her place serves wonderful food.. I usually have some wine leftover after opening a bottle, so I'll pour that into the vinegar. Sometimes, if on sale, I'll buy those little Riunite 4-packs, and I might add one bottle of it to add to a gallon of the vinegar.

If I'm going for a truly delicate vinegar - I'll use a rice vinegar, such as Marukan.

I've heard there are sources for good white vinegar, and that you can make your own white vinegar, but I haven't tried that yet - has anyone here?

From: "Penny Andrews" <pandrews.STUDENTS.WISC.EDU>

One of my favorite vinegars is to use the opal basil ( the red one), it turns the vinegar to a gorgeous red.

From: Alison Dawson <adawson.EHS.EDUHSD..CA.US>

Anyway, with this herbal vinegar thing, does it matter if one uses fresh or dried herbs? I have found that dried seem to work better, but my use of fresh herbs is quite limited. Also, different sources give different answers to whether or not the vinegar should "steep" in darkness or sunlight.

From: David Tomlinson <tomlinso.NADN.NAVY.MIL>

Alison,

If you have committed a culinary crime, then we both have committed the same one. I use a variety of vinegars including cider. An affordable wine vinegar is Sun of Italy's bought by the gallon at $3.95 a gallon at a local Italian grocery. My suspicion is that it might be found even cheaper at a discount store.

Yes, the rosemary vinegar is one of my favorites as well. And my family likes it just as much as I do.

An interesting book on the whole process of vinegar making is Maggie Oster's _Herbal Vinegar_, published just last year. She shares our taste for cider vinegar though she discusses the use of a number of kinds for use with herbs.

From: christopher hedley <christopher.GN.APC.ORG>

I use cider vinegar.

How about Rosemary vinegar which can be used as a hair rinse as well as in cooking and Garlic vinegar which is a good general antiseptic as well as excellent salad dressing.

Bath salts made by mixing 10-15 drops of essential oils 'personally selected' in 2 teaspoons of baking soda, mixed well with 3 handfulls of sea salt.

Pot pouris made by mixing 20 drops of essential oils into 2 teaspoons of Orris root powder added to a couple of handfulls of dried flowers - remember you can use aromatic woods as well.

Good looking labels are an important final touch.

Christopher Hedley

From: Colette Gardiner <coletteg.EFN.ORG>

Hi, Actually my current favorite vinegar is fresh Dandelion leaf and root packed into Balsamic vinegar. Great!

Colette Gardiner