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Corn Vinegar
Cut off cob 1 pint of corn. Take 1 pint brown sugar or molasses to a gallon of rain water and add the corn. Put in jar, cover with thin cloth and set in sun. 3 weeks it will be vinegar.
In -Mrs. J. H., Orangeville, Ont.
A wild two-stage ferment: yeasts convert the sugar to alcohol, then airborne Acetobacter converts the alcohol to acetic acid. The original assumes a warm porch, a stone jar and a household that already had vinegar going somewhere nearby.
- The hinge: air, not sunAcetobacter needs oxygen, which is why the jar is covered with cloth rather than a lid. Keep the cloth tied down against fruit flies, and do not seal the jar at any point or the conversion stalls at alcohol.
- Rain waterRain water was specified because it is soft and unchlorinated. Heavily chlorinated tap water can slow the ferment; filtered or bottled water avoids the question. Note that standing water overnight only drives off free chlorine, not chloramine.
- QuantitiesA pint of kernels is roughly three to four large ears. The proportions are one pint corn and one pint brown sugar or molasses per gallon of water, so scale the corn with the water if you make less.
- Give it a starterWaiting on ambient bacteria is slow and unreliable in a modern kitchen. A cup of raw unpasteurized cider vinegar, mother included, stirred in after the first week of bubbling will get the acetic stage moving.
- Temperature over sunlightWhat the sun supplied was warmth. Steady 75-85F in a dim corner works better than direct sun, which heats unevenly and can push the jar too hot by afternoon.
- Three weeks is optimisticExpect four to eight weeks before it tastes sharply of vinegar, longer in a cool room. Taste weekly and strain out the corn once the liquid clears.
- Mother versus mouldA pale, gelatinous film on the surface is the vinegar mother and is wanted. Fuzzy growth in green, black or pink, or any smell of nail polish remover that does not fade, means discard the batch.
- Do not use it for canningThe finished acidity is unknown and almost certainly below the 5 percent that modern pickling and canning recipes require. Treat this as a table and salad vinegar; use commercial vinegar of stated strength for anything sealed in a jar for storage.
- YieldAbout a gallon, less what the corn absorbs. Bottle it loosely capped; it keeps well and goes on mellowing, though check it periodically rather than assuming it will last forever.
Sugar-and-water vinegars were a familiar household economy in rural Ontario and the American Midwest, where cider vinegar was seasonal and store vinegar cost money that corn and molasses did not. The corn here is doing two jobs: its own sugars feed the ferment, and the kernels give the wild yeasts a surface to work on, much as a raisin or a crust of bread does in other homemade vinegar formulas. The Five Roses Cook Book, published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company and offered to buyers of its flour, drew heavily on recipes contributed by Canadian housewives, which is why this entry carries a name and a town -- Mrs. J. H. of Orangeville was describing what worked in her own kitchen, at her own summer temperatures, and the three-week figure should be read as her experience rather than a rule.