Cider Vinegar

A historical recipe from Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840).

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A historical recipe

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840). Project Gutenberg eBook #9624.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 5 ingredients

Take six quarts of rye meal;
stir and mix it well into a barrel of strong hard cider of the best kind;
and then add a gallon of whiskey.
Cover the cask, (leaving the bung loosely in it,) set it in the part of your yard that is most exposed to the sun and air;
and in the course of four weeks (if the weather is warm and dry) you will have good vinegar fit for use.
When you draw off a gallon or more, replenish the cask with the same quantity of cider, and add about a pint of whiskey.
You may thus have vinegar constantly at hand for common purposes.
The cask should have iron hoops.
A very strong vinegar may be made by mixing cider and strained honey, (allowing a pound of honey to a gallon of cider,) and letting it stand five or six months.
This vinegar is so powerful that for common purposes it should be diluted with a little water.
Vinegar may be made in the same manner of sour wine.