Tenacious Taste: Books

Skinny Bitch: The Ultimate Everyday Cookbook
By Kim Barnouin
Tenacious rating: ★★★★★

Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey
By Jill O'Connor
Tenacious rating: ★★★★

Farm to Table: The Art of Eating Locally
By Ivy Manning
Tenacious rating: ★★★★★

Tip of the Month: January/February

Turning Wine Into Vinegar

If you typically cook for one or live mostly alone, then you know what I am talking about when you find yourself throwing quarter, third, half, or sometimes even almost full bottles of wine down the drain because you didn't get around to drinking the rest of it before it started to get sour. It makes me cringe every time I take a melt-in-your-mouth velvety pinot noir or a peppered-earthy shiraz and watch it bubble itself out of the bottle and into my garbage disposal. Well friends, here is a great alternative to tossing out a once yummy wine and saving some dollars; make homemade vinegar!

It sounds like you might need some special equipment or a ton of extra time on your hands, but surprisingly, wine-vinegar is extremely easy to do on your own, without any fancy skills or machines. You'll want to start with a decent amount of a good red wine (one that you would drink) that is below 12% alcohol by volume, ideally somewhere between 10-11%, and no lower that 10%. Too much alcohol will prevent the wine from converting to vinegar and too little alcohol will allow for the vinegar to spoil too easily.

You can actually make your vinegar as simply as leaving the wine out in your kitchen in a clean container with a small mouthed open lid at a steady temperature for a few months. The vinegar will stay towards the top and the excess "non-vinegar" should sink to the bottom of the container. If you want a no-hassle "do less for more" vinegar, then this is the way to go. However, keep a close eye on it and visit some websites online like http://italianfood.about.com for more information on this technique.

Ideally, you want to start with what is called a "mother", or a healthy culture of bacteria. Completely harmless, mothers will help to convert the alcohol to vinegar in a safe, more uniform way. You can get your hands on mother from stores that cater to beer/wine/vinegar makers or you can now find it online at sites like homebrew4less.com.

If you want to get fancy, you can use an earthenware crock with a spigot (if you are trying to make a big batch) or you can use a small clean glass jar covered with cheesecloth to prevent bugs or dust from getting inside. Whichever you choose, make sure that the vinegar/wine mixture will have access to oxygen, an important component in the conversion process. You should fill whatever container you choose, no more than halfway with your mother/wine mixture.

You'll want to start with about a 1:1 mother/wine ratio for your first run. As you continue making vinegar with the mother, it will get stronger and you will be able to add more wine into the ratio. It is important to note that the percentage of alcohol will dictate the length of time to make the vinegar. If you have a wine that is higher in alcohol, you can dilute it with a little water to bring the percentage down, but note that the flavor may seem less rich and complex at the end.

The entire process will take two months or more typically for a first-use mother/wine mixture and as the mother strengthens, it will take less time. The mother will sink to the bottom of your container and the ready-to-use vinegar will be floating at the top. Sometimes a small film will develop on top of the vinegar and you can easily scrape this off from time to time.

You may want to run your vinegar through a filter of cheesecloth, or a carbon-based filter if you want it to be ultra-refined. Either way, leave a little vinegar in your container and take out excess mother (if it has gotten to be a lot) so that you can continue making vinegar with it. If the mother has run out of alcohol, it will eat off the vinegar and produce water and other not-so-great ingredients as by-products, spoiling further vinegar making. So get ready, get set, and go drink only half bottles of your favorite cabs, pinots, and merlots! And remember, this process is suited for RED wines only. White wine vinegar is harder to make because of sulfites often found in these lighter wines that make the process more tricky.

Try This: Pinot noir-vinegar marinated cippolini onions sauteed over herb crusted chicken served with peppery arugula tossed with olive oil and shiraz-vinegar. Try all kinds of wine! Heck, try em' all!

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