Making Herbal Vinegars

I became interested in herb gardens in the early 70's, shortly after I was married. I love the textures and aromas of fresh herbs. To me, having garden fresh herbs makes cooking an adventure. But you don't need a garden to have fresh herbs to cook with; many types of herbs are happy to grow in containers.

In the late 70's I read about making herb vinegar. Some years, if I am feeling ambitious, I make a few because, well....just because!

Herb vinegars are good for marinades and salad dressing, but mostly I like the way the bottles 'dress up' the kitchen. :)

Earlier this Spring I made half a gallon of chive vinegar. Making herb vinegar is super easy. All you need to do is to fill a glass container with the herbs you've selected and then cover them with vinegar. I use white vinegar, but rice vinegar or any other vinegar that does not have a strong taste on its own is good to use. Strong tasting vinegars, like apple vinegar, do not let the herbal flavors come through.

It takes a few weeks for the vinegar to draw out the herb's flavors, but you can let it go even longer. When the vinegar's flavor is at a strength that you like, strain the herbs out and place back in the glass container or, as most people do, transfer it to a pretty bottle.

A common practice in bottling the vinegar is to 'label' it the old-fashioned way by adding sprigs of the herbs in the bottle to identify the type of vinegar inside.

I waited until the chives bloomed to bottle the vinegar because I wanted to add chive blossoms to the bottle. I love chive blossoms because they look like clovers :)

Even though I had artfully arranged the chive stems with blossoms in the bottle, it was for naught when I added the vinegar because the blossoms all floated to the top. Still, it's kinda pretty, and the blossoms will give the vinegar a faint purply-pink color.

I re-used the same bottle that held Bill Bebee's mead. You can't see it in this pic, but the bottle has a pretty raised floral motif near the bend of the neck. I think it is a lovely bottle for herb vinegar as well as sweet honey wine (read blog post about Bill's mead here.) 



Tomorrow I'll give ideas for using herbal vinegars :)

Marcheta *got that "Chive Talking" thing going again...