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Vinegar, Cider

Cider is the principal source of vinegar in the Northern States of North America. The common family method is as follows. The vinegar barrel in summer is placed in the garret, or on the sunny side of a building, and in winter in a room where it does not freeze. The refuse cider, already sour, or the daily remnants of the family table, are added to some good vinegar in the barrel, or to the mother of vinegar, as it is called. This mother of vinegar is a white or yellowish ropy coagulum of a mucilaginous appearance which is formed in the vinegar, and acts as a ferment upon cider not yet thoroughly acidified. The fermentation is often aided by putting into it a piece of dough or lean animal muscle, or by adding molasses, or the sugar which falls spontaneously from molasses. In a few weeks the vinegar will be formed.