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Herbs, Wines Of
Herbs may be infused in wine instead of vinegar, and when this is done, the essence will be found useful for those dishes in which the acidity imparted by vinegar is not required. Proceed as with vinegar (see the preceding recipe), using sherry, claret, or any light wine to fill the bottle. As wine is stronger than vinegar, a fortnight will be found sufficient to extract the flavour. Time, about two weeks to infuse.
A flavouring rather than a dish: bruised herbs steeped in wine, to be used where a herb vinegar would be too sharp. The method is borrowed wholesale from the preceding herb-vinegar entry, so the practical detail has to be filled in.
- What the preceding recipe assumedThe herb-vinegar entry is not reproduced here, but the usual method of the period was to pick the herbs dry, strip the leaves from the stalks, bruise them lightly, and pack them loosely into a clean bottle or jar before topping up with liquid. Cork or seal, keep in a warm place, shake from time to time, then strain through muslin into a clean bottle.
- "Fill the bottle"A standard wine bottle of the period held about 26 fluid ounces, close enough to today's 750 ml. Figure on a well-packed cupful of leaves to that quantity of wine.
- Sherry, claret, or light wineSherry (around 15-20% alcohol) will extract faster and keep better than table wine; claret, at roughly 12-14%, is the weaker option. Whatever you use should be sound -- a wine already turning will only make a poor vinegar.
- Why wine is called "stronger"Most likely the alcohol pulls out the aromatic oils faster than vinegar does, hence a fortnight against the longer steeping a vinegar infusion wants. Taste at ten days; tarragon and basil give up their flavour quickly, thyme, bay and rosemary more slowly.
- Keep everything submergedThis is the hinge. Wine is far less protective than vinegar, and any leaf sitting above the liquid will mould and taint the whole bottle. Weight the herbs down or top up with more wine as they settle.
- Storage, which the original ignoresStrain out the herbs at the end of the fortnight rather than leaving them in indefinitely, and store the finished essence corked in the refrigerator. A table-wine infusion is best used within a month or two; a sherry-based one will hold several months.
- Using itA tablespoon or two goes into a pan sauce, a gravy, a marinade or a cream soup at the end of cooking, where the herb note survives and the wine cooks off. It is not a substitute for herb vinegar in dressings, since it brings no acidity of its own.
This is a store-cupboard technique: Victorian and Edwardian kitchens kept a shelf of flavoured vinegars, essences and spiced wines so that a cook could reach for tarragon or basil in February. Herb vinegars are the older tradition, documented in English household books well before the nineteenth century, and infusing in wine instead is sometimes said to be a refinement associated with French-style sauce work, where a sharp vinegar note would fight the butter and stock. The instruction to use sherry is telling of the period's larder -- fortified wine was ubiquitous in British cooking, and stable enough to sit in an opened bottle for weeks.