Add vinegar to the list of things you ought to be making yourself. Once you've got that trick down, you'll be using it in dishes that go way beyond salad.
February, the month of romance, is all about chocolate and Champagne. Would it be wrong then, for us to wax poetic about our long love of vinegar?
A good wine vinegar is hard to find. The kind in grocery stores can be too acidic. Specialty food shops carry fancy balsamic and flavored vinegars, but often there is no top-shelf red wine variety to be found. So we make our own, for the fun and satisfaction of it, and because we love its sparkling, fresh flavor.
We got started when a friend gave each of us a piece of "mother," which resembles the Absent-Minded Professor's flubber, a blob floating in jars with a little wine and water. It's this mother, the live starter, that transforms wine into vinegar (acetic acid) through alcoholic fermentation and bacterial activity, with an assist from good old oxygen.
We swapped out the canning jars for gallon crocks draped with cheesecloth, which allows air in but blocks out light. Then, with a flourish, we poured a bottle of 2007 Meredith Estate Pinot Noir into each. The more delicious and aromatic the wine, the finer the vinegar, so whatever we're drinking, we share a glass with our fermenting vinegar.
There's not much to do besides adding more wine every so often. Then just wait for the vinegar to mellow as it matures over the next couple of months. Aged red wine vinegar has a tawny reddish color, a clean but sharp aroma, and a subtly intense flavor.
So, how do we use it? Of course we make a classic vinaigrette with shallot, S&P, and sometimes a teaspoon of Dijon. Like Southern cooks, we add a little vinegar to our braised greens. In the recipes that follow, we stir spoonfuls into butter to dress wilted spinach (it cuts the slightly bitter taste spinach can have). And we braise chicken in vinegar the way they do in Lyon, with a handful of currants to sweeten the sour.
Making vinegar reminds us of a love affair. As in all great romances, you must pay attention to its needs, take care of it, and have patience as it ages and transforms into something beautiful.**
GET THE RECIPES
Your Very Own Vinegar
Vinegar-Braised Chicken and Onions
Buttered Spinach with Vinegar