Annabel Langbein

Elevate your meals with this tangy condiment

The other day I discovered a jar labelled “Special Red Wine Vinegar 2010” in the very back of my kitchen cupboard. Knowing that vinegar never goes off (in the balsamic houses of Modena, in Italy, a cask of balsamic vinegar is sometimes put down when a child is born and not gifted until they reach the age of 21, by which time it is worth a small fortune), I opened the jar and tried it. The flavour was rounded, full-bodied and almost sweet. Floating around in the bottom of the jar was something that looked like a chunk of raw liver. Actually, this unattractive mass was the vinegar “mother”, a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria (mycoderma aceti) that develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids and, with the aid of oxygen in the air, turns alcohol into acetic acid. Though slightly different in its composition (and because this was a red wine vinegar not a white wine one), it looked a bit like the scoby used to make kombucha.

You may have sometimes noticed a cloudy, jelly-like substance floating in the bottom of a bottle of vinegar, especially in bottles of cider vinegar. This is an early stage of the mother, which, if left long enough, will form the gloop that I found in my well-aged bottle of homemade red wine vinegar.

Wine vinegars start with white or red wine, while malt vinegar takes its cue from beer hops, apples are used to make cider vinegar and grain is the basis of white vinegar. Each vinegar offers a different flavour profile and level of acidity and it’s useful having a range to draw on in your pantry.

Making your own wine vinegar is actually incredibly simple and a fabulous way to reinvent all those half-empty glasses of wine left over at the end of a dinner party or a wine that has sat around a bit long and is no longer good to drink. You don’t need to worry about viruses or bugs — the environment is way too acidic for any of them to survive. Start by transferring the dregs of a bottle of vinegar that has some of the cloudy stuff hanging around the base into a big jar or vinegar crock (don’t use anything metallic). Add leftover wine whenever you have it and cover with a cloth so the air can get in. Once the jar is full, cover with a screw-top lid and leave in a warm cupboard. After about six months, provided it’s left somewhere warm, it will start to taste like vinegar. Keep tasting and when it tastes vinegary enough, strain most of it off into a sterilised jar and start using it. You can then begin the process again by adding more wine to the now more established mother.

Vinegar’s wonderful ability to elevate a dish comes to the fore in the following tasty recipes.