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Garlic Vinegar
4 heads of garlic, sliced. 1 ounce of red peppers, chopped. 1/2 teacupful of walnut ketchup. 1 tablespoonful of salt. 2 quarts of vinegar. Put all in a stone jar, cold, and keep covered. Used for Russian, Italian, Polish and Spanish salads. With the pulp of a few pounded anchovies added, and a little red coloring the above is the sauce called carachi.
A cold-steeped flavored vinegar of the old pantry type, meant to be kept on hand and spooned into salad dressings rather than used neat. Two points do most of the work: the walnut ketchup, which no longer sits on most shelves, and the steeping time, which the original never gives.
- Walnut ketchupA dark, thin, salty condiment made from green walnuts, salt, vinegar and spice — nothing like tomato ketchup. It is still made by a few British producers; mushroom ketchup is the closest common stand-in, and Worcestershire sauce will do at a pinch, though it is sweeter and more tamarind-forward.
- TeacupfulIn American books of this period a teacup is reckoned at anywhere from about 4 to 6 fluid ounces, so half a teacupful is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 cup. The measure was never standardized, and here the exact amount matters little.
- Red peppersAn ounce of chopped red peppers most likely means hot red pepper pods — cayenne or similar — rather than fresh sweet bell peppers. An ounce of chile is a substantial amount of heat in two quarts; start with less if you want a vinegar you can pour freely.
- Stone jarA glazed stoneware crock or a glass jar. Do not use metal or an unglazed vessel: two quarts of vinegar will attack the one and soak into the other.
- Steeping and strainingThe recipe says only to keep it covered. Period directions for steeped vinegars range from a couple of weeks to a month or more in a cool dark place, after which the vinegar can be strained through cloth and bottled; garlic and pepper left in indefinitely will turn muddy and bitter.
- Garlic in oil versus vinegarRaw garlic held in vinegar is safe because the acid keeps the pH low — this is why the recipe works cold. The same treatment in oil is not safe, and the two should never be confused.
- The anchovy variantPounded anchovies turn the vinegar into a fish sauce of the Worcestershire family. Anchovies are salt-cured and the medium is straight vinegar, so it keeps, but strain it and refrigerate once the fish goes in — it will thicken and cloud over time.
- Red coloringIn a book of this vintage this would most likely have meant cochineal, or an aniline (coal-tar) dye. Sweet paprika or a spoonful of beet juice gives the color without argument.
- YieldTwo quarts, which is a great deal for a seasoning vinegar. Halving or quartering the whole is sensible unless you dress salads daily.
Flavored vinegars were pantry staples through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — tarragon, chili, garlic, elder-flower — kept in stoppered bottles and used as the sharp element in a dressing when fresh herbs were out of season. The walnut ketchup called for here is the older meaning of "ketchup": a thin, dark, salty brewed sauce, of which the mushroom and walnut versions long predated the tomato one in English and American kitchens. The variant named at the end resembles a family of English bottled sauces built on walnut ketchup, anchovy, garlic and cayenne; the best known of these is Quin's sauce, traditionally credited to the actor James Quin, and Worcestershire is often described as a descendant of the type. Russian, Italian, Polish and Spanish salads were all familiar named salads of the period.