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Lemon Vinegar
Fill a bottle nearly full of strong cider vinegar. Put in it the rind of two or three lemons, peeled very thin. In a week or two it will be ready for use, and will not only make a nice beverage (very much like lemonade), but will answer for seasoning.--Mrs. M. C. C.
A one-ingredient infusion that still works exactly as described. The only real variables are the size of your bottle and the quality of the peel.
- Bottle sizeThe original assumes whatever bottle was to hand, most likely a quart. Two or three lemons' worth of rind flavours about a quart (4 cups) well; scale the peel up or down rather than guessing at a fixed number.
- "Strong cider vinegar"Cider vinegar is usually sold at around 5 percent acidity, which is what this wants. Home-made or unpasteurised vinegar of the period varied in strength, which is presumably why this recipe asks for "strong"; skip anything labelled "vinegar drink" or diluted below 5 percent, as it will not keep as reliably.
- Peel, not pith"Peeled very thin" is the hinge of the recipe. The aromatic oil sits in the coloured zest; the white pith beneath turns the infusion bitter over a long steep. A vegetable peeler held nearly flat gives the right thickness.
- Wax on modern fruitSupermarket lemons are usually coated. Scrub them under hot water or buy unwaxed, since the coating is what you are about to steep for a fortnight.
- Timing and strainingA week is enough in a warm kitchen, two in a cool one. Strain the peel out once the vinegar smells strongly of lemon; leaving it in indefinitely dulls the aroma and eventually gives a stewed, faintly bitter note.
- Using it as a beverageIt is a flavouring vinegar, too sharp to drink undiluted despite the "very much like lemonade" comparison. Start at about 1 tablespoon to a tall glass of cold or sparkling water, sweeten to taste, and adjust from there.
- Using it for seasoningSubstitute it wherever a recipe wants lemon juice plus vinegar: salad dressings, a splash into greens or braised cabbage, fish sauces. It brings acidity and lemon aroma but none of the juice's body, so it is not a straight one-for-one swap for juice alone.
- KeepingStrained and capped, it holds for months in a cool cupboard. Vinegar attacks bare metal, so use a plastic-lined or cork closure rather than a plain metal lid.
Flavoured vinegars were the household answer to the short life of fresh citrus. Lemons reached Virginia kitchens by ship and did not last, but their oil holds its flavour for months once it is drawn into acid, so a cook could capture the rinds left from a punch or a pudding and have lemon flavour on the shelf through the winter. Drinks of this kind belong to the long family of shrubs and switchels, vinegar-based coolers that were common summer fare in American households well before commercial soft drinks. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1879, gathered contributions from a large circle of Virginia housekeepers, many signed with initials as this one is — a format that preserved not just recipes but the small economies, like saving lemon rind, that ran a nineteenth-century kitchen.