FLAVOURED VINEGAR

FOR EACH 1 LITRE WINE BOTTLE

      1 l  (1 3/4 pints) plain wine

           -vinegar

      4    Or 5 shallots, peeled and

           -slightly crushed, threaded

           -on fine string or

      4    Cloves garlic, peeled and

           -slightly crushed or

      2 tb Mustard seed or

      1    Long leafy branch tarragon

           -twice the length of the

           -bottle

  Flavoured wine vinegar has been an important ingredient in French

  cooking since medieval times when vinegar was essential in order to

  keep meat edible in warm weather.

  In the 13th century, street vendors were granted the right to cry

  their wares in the thoroughfares of Paris. These cries soon became

  famous, and the vinegar sellers even rolled their casks through the

  narrow streets crying 'Garlic and mustard vinegars, herb vinegar... '

  'Vinaigres, bons et biaux.'

  They also sold verjus, the sieved juice of unripe grapes which serves

  to sharpen the flavour of many cooked dishes in the same way that

  vinegar does.  It is still used in some country places and provides a

  means of using up green grapes unfit for any other purpose.

  All farm kitchens have an earthenware vinegar barrel. It constitutes

  another of the many country economies. After the grape harvest, a

  certain quantity of either red or white wine is reserved and poured

  into the barrel over a liquid fungus or mere de vinaigre which turns

  it into vinegar. The quantity drawn off each day is replaced by

  emptying the remains of the wine bottles into the barrel.

  When herbs are most pungent, just before flowering, they are cut and

  used to aromatize some of the vinegar drawn off. It is then bottled

  and used for flavouring.

  Owning a vinegar barrel is a privilege of which few English kitchens

  can boast but plain wine vinegar sold in the multiple chemists' shops

  can be used effectively with home-grown herbs to produce fine vinegar

  at much less cost than that prepared commercially.

  FLAVOURED VINEGAR:

  Collect the number of bottles necessary, with sound corks to fit.

  Wash the bottles in hot soapy water, rinse first in very hot water

  then in cold, drain, dry and heat in a slow oven. Scald the corks in

  boiling water.

  Pour the vinegar into an enamel-lined or stainless steel pan and over

  a low temperature bring slowly to blood heat. It should be quite warm

  to the touch of a knuckle joint, no more. Add shallots, garlic,

  mustard seed or tarragon to the warm bottles.  (If using tarragon,

  this should be bent double and pushed down the neck of the bottle.)

  Fill up with warm vinegar, cork down tightly, and place on a sunny

  window sill to mature for 6 weeks before use.

  From "The French Farmhouse Kitchen", Eileen Reece, Exeter Books,

  1984. ISBN 0-671-06542-4