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Vinegar

Vinegar is an acid liquid, obtained by fermentation, and, either plain or flavoured, is used largely in cookery. White-wine vinegar is generally considered the best. It is by no means the most wholesome. Bordeaux vinegar is, perhaps, to be preferred to any other for salads, sauces, and home-made pickles, and other preparations for which common vinegar is too strong in flavour. It may be obtained by order from any grocer. Vinegar may be economically made at home, either with a vinegar plant or with sugar and water (see SUGAR, VINEGAR), or with sour wine, or even strong sour beer. All that is necessary is to provide at first a small cask of good vinegar, to keep it in a place where the temperature is mild, and, as it is drawn off, to fill it, and also to keep it always filled up with spoiled or sour wine. If a cask is chosen which has not contained vinegar before, a large bottleful of boiling vinegar should be poured into it, shaken about till cold, and left in it for some hours. Vinegar may be made, too, from the pulp and husks of fruit which has been used for making wine. To make it, pour boiling water on the refuse; let it stand some hours, and stir occasionally till the taste is completely drawn from the fruit. Strain the liquor, and add to every gallon a pound of strong coarse sugar and a table-spoonful of yeast. Let it work four or five days, put it into a vinegar cask, cover the bunghole with a piece of tile or slate, and leave it in a warm situation for ten or twelve months till the vinegar is made. Put it in a cool place, and if the vinegar is not clear and bright, mix a little dissolved isinglass with it. Bung it up, or bottle for use. Vinegar made from the refuse of raisin wine is excellent. Vinegar was known for many ages before any other acid. It is mentioned by Moses, and, indeed, seems to have been common among the Israelites and other Eastern nations at a very early period. It was at first made from wine, and the formation of wine vinegar is probably as ancient as the liquor itself from which it was produced, although the improvement of the process has been the result of the observation of ages. Vinegar was much in use among the Greeks and Romans, who employed it both in their cookery as a luxury and as a medicine. It was found highly useful in their armies; the soldiers being always obliged to carry some, for the purpose of mixing a little with water to obtain a grateful drink both cooling and excellent to quench thirst. The practice is still followed in some of the warmer parts of Europe; particularly among the Spanish peasantry, who are accustomed to mix about a gill of wine vinegar with a gallon of water and a tea-spoonful of salt for a common beverage; and with this drink alone, and bread, they frequently sustain the labours of the field, exposed to the heat of the sun in their warm climate, and are as healthy and athletic a race as any in Europe.