Hi everyone, I wanted to add to this video that for the most consistent results, this method isn't great. I mean, it obviously worked, and if Mike says it's good, it's probably good! However, for the most consistent results you have to treat making vinegar as the two-step process Mike outlined in the beginning of the video, that is: 1) Convert the sugars into alcohol (alcoholic fermentation) 2) Convert the alcohol into acetic acid (acetic fermentation) This way, you can better optimize each step. Alcoholic fermentation is most optimal in anaerobic conditions (in absence of oxygen), while acetic fermentation is most optimal in aerobic conditions (in presence of oxygen). Additionally, by letting both processes take place simultaneously, the alcohol is quickly converted by the acetobacter, which means that the alcohol content never quite gets high enough to prevent infection. So first, you focus on creating alcohol, by creating an anaerobic environment. This can be done easily by just slapping an airlock on a jar. The yeast will get started on its own, using some of the oxygen and pushing the rest out of the jar until you're left with only CO2, when the anaerobic fermentation gets started. After a week or two, this will be done. You'll see the lack of activity in the airlock, and the yeast starting to settle out. Draw the liquid from the top, maybe heat it to kill the yeast, and leave exposed to air for the acetic fermentation. For the best results, I'd recommend adding some (brewer's) yeast in the beginning and adding some acetobacter here. You can add acetobacter by adding a few tablespoons of a non-pasteurized vinegar, that still has live acetobacter in it. After some time, you may see a slimy sheet develop, similar to a SCOBY. This is a vinegar mother, and contains live acetobacter. You can reuse this to inoculate another batch of vinegar later, so you don't have to compromise the taste of your vinegar by adding the acetobacter. I really hope this helps people to make the most amazing vinegar! I made pear vinegar from some leftover pear cider using this method, and it's one of the best vinegars I've ever had. Edit: so this is an 8-month-old comment and I still get questions about vinegar making. I just want to direct anyone with questions about the process I'm describing to these videos by Glen and Friends cooking: th-cam.com/video/Y-Cn1u8qiKE/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/bxH9tL78r6g/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/gfp7R2qNsCo/w-d-xo.html Two of them are about making vinegar from scratch (ACV and pineapple vinegar), the last one starts with a brew (beer vinegar). These videos provide a pretty good overview of the process, in my opinion.
I ask this as someone who doesn't know much about this stuff, but is there a risk of botulism from fermenting in the absence of O2, or does something like the generation of alcohol prevent that from happening?
@@scout3801 Technically, there's always a risk of botulism. However, if you clean your equipment every time, botulism is just not prevalent enough to really become a problem. The only time botulism is an issue is when you're canning something. Botulinum bacteria can survive boiling, and will grow after all other microbes have been killed by the boiling. With brewing, the risk is negligible, but exactly why that is I don't know.
Superbassio The risk of botulism is so rare in brewing/fermenting because the PH drops pretty rapidly and is rendered an unsuitable environment for botulism within a couple days. That’s why canning acidic foods like pickles, tomatoes etc. only needs the boiling water bath to be safe - while canning salmon, green beans etc. require pressure cooking to be safe. And when you’re fermenting and something goes wrong where botulism could thrive in the environment after a week, you’ll also know as soon as you smell it that something went terribly wrong.
The "vinegar" isn't stable until all of the oxygen is removed. If you want to store or age vinegar, reduce the head in the container so the surface of the liquid doesn't come in contact with air. A narrow-necked bottle works better for this than wide mouth jars. If you don't do this, when the alcohol is all consumed, the acetobacters will begin to consume the acetic acid and you will end up back at plain water. Alternatively, you can pasteurize the vinegar to eliminate the acetobacters and any yeasts present. Vinegars may change chemical composition over time, but "aging" of vinegars is mostly done in wooden containers (viz. Balsamic vinegars of Modena) so that there is some evaporation of the water through the wood, and perhaps dissolution of wood resins into the solution (akin to aging alcohol in wood). Use plastic lids on widemouth jars to prevent rusting of the metal lids. Consider using wine-making yeasts to better control the quality of your alcohol fermentations.
@@bestja2137 Bacteria contribute to aging as well (like malolactic fermentation) and they don't need to be in barrels for this. Even after yeast is done there are still a lot of living things altering the product.
Aging is usually refered to malolactic fermentation and while it can happen in a bottle, that would result in CO2 buildup, making it slighty effervescent .
A tip for a better dust cover. Instead of using rubber bands to secure the coffee filter, lay the filter over the Mason/Kerr jar and secure it with a Mason jar metal ring without the lid insert.
I went for it. I started 2 jars of dried fruit vinegar! Raisins and dried plums/prunes. Its what I had. After a week, the raisins were going full on. I could smell the alcohol as I stirred it daily. The prunes/dried plums were not doing squat. So, I cheated a bit. I spooned about 1/2 tsp of the liquid from the raisins into the dried plum/prune jar, and a few days later it started bubbling and I could just start to smell the alcohol in it. I've done several of fermentation... kombucha, both water and milk kefir, ACV. So, now its fun to add vinegar to my list! Thanks for this!
@@TheJavaGuru78 very nice. Even now, 10 months later, they are nice to cook with. They are both strong flavors, so don't need much. Like a deep red wine. After 5ish months, I strained out the solids and bottled them in an old kombucha bottle and a qt jar.
Wow. I had no idea. I live in Japan and it`s so hard to find the Bragg`s vinegar, or it`s like $100 to ship, so now I know I can just make my own, I won`t feel so protective of using it. I`m learning so much from you. Thank you!
@@sfr2107 Braggs is ok, not out of this world, you can make the same or better yourself. Save the 100 and spend a bit of that on fresh fruit. Good luck and good fermenting
Thank you for passing on your experimenting experience with fresh fruit. I started a mango vinegar with mangoes I had just dehydrated and it is great! I’m only into about week for but am loving what I’m smelling and tasting. Just goes to show you even when your getting old (in your 70’s) you can still learn great things!
WOOOW! MANGO VINEGAR! THAT'S MY FAVE FRUIT AND WE HAVE TONS OF MANGOES WHERE I LIVE. I'LL MAKE MINE W/MANGOES. BTW, I'M IN MY 70'S TOO. WE HAVE TO KEEP LEARNING ALL THE WAY TO 100YRS OLD AND BEYOND. THAT'S THE SECRET TO STAY YOUTHFUL. 🌺✌🏾💚🌺
I’ve been making my own ACV for a year now, and you don’t actually need whole chunks of fruit. I use just the peel and the core, adding a little sugar to the water. Any time I make an apple pie or homemade apple sauce (which I use regularly in vegan baking) I also make vinegar so that no part of the apple goes to waste! I drink it mixed with ice water and cinnamon, and it makes the most delicious, refreshing, appley beverage!
I just started making vinegars I first started with a handful of the last blackberries of the season and some dandelions. That will be interesting! Then I heard of banana and mojito mint from Heidi at Rain Country. She said it comes out tasting like lemon! The last couple of days I've been working through pears. Canning, vinegar (3 qt. jars) of peels and cores and finishing with pear butter. Love this time of year but whew!
Haha what you do called junk vinegar.are you joking or what? did you studied science ? Vinegar is made from the juice or cider of the fruits with a condition that the juice must be at least 10 Brix which means having 100 grams of fructose in one liter of the juice .go read real science instead of following of a uneducated youtubers
Another nice trick is when you have a fruit wine (which is essentially what you have after step 1) is to fortify it with vodka to get the alcohol up to 20%+ and it'll be stable for a fairly long time, perfect for usage in food as well as vinegar.
Love it. Don't give up on vinegar made from fresh fruit though. Give blackberries a try, they make an excellent vinegar. I like to save the spent berries, blend them, and use the mixture as a condiment--it makes for a great mustard. One way you can prevent mold is to create a weight so that the fruit is completely submerged in the liquid. Put some dry beans in a plastic bag and stick it on top. You can also minimize headspace (the space between the top of the liquid and the lid). Just make sure there is still enough air to allow the fermentation to occur.
On a lark, my wife and I tried using an organic grade b maple syrup. We went through the process and then put it at the back of a shelf to age. Three years and a quarantine later, we found it this week. It's incredible! I'd put it on par with some of the best top shelf balsamic vinegars I've ever been fortunate enough to sample. Surprisingly, it's fantastic with parmesan and some other cheeses we had on hand.
R mcgrath vinegar making is not like making beer or wine. Its a standard process, from other comments from experienced makers i see here in the comments. So, no one needs to elaborate on how they did it. Cause anyone can look it up, cheers
The "mold" @6:33 looks more like yeast to me. If it was white,fuzzy with some black coloring than yeah its mold, but if was just white specks than it was yeast. You can also tell the difference between the two because yeast will make the jar smell like bread or beer. I made vinegar this past summer from mango & plums using kefir water starter. Using a glass weight would've also help prevent the development of the yeast and mold on the top layer.
if it was actual mold, it would come back with a vengence even after removing it out, since it's all within the entirety of the vinegar; not the top. def kahm.
I use snack size ziplock bags filled with water or air as "weights" to hold the material under water. No need to buy any glass weights unless it is your thing. I collect things.
I had a massive kahm yeast growth on my mango vinegar. I ignored it for a months it it resolved itself. The kahm was gone and a beautiful, thick Mother of Vinegat formed on top. I think I read the sweeter the mix is, the more likely you will have a big growth of yeast.
I generally add in herbs and spices I grow to the vinegars I make. It really adds an extra profile if you throw some rosemary and onion and garlic in an apple vinegar or basil and dried cayenne peppers in a blackberry vinegar (some of the best tastes right there) and then leave them in canning jars (or whatever you normally use) in the fridge for a week or two. Vinegar keeps well and just soaks in more flavor over time
"Acetic acid" is the modern term, but it comes from "acidic acid." It's a bit weird, but he can use that term if he wants. And wine does still age in the bottle, even if that's not what is desired or intended.
@@avmrock Wine ages from the moment it's done fermenting until the point it is drank. There is a bulk aging, which is done in large vats prior to bottling, but once in the bottle it will continue to age until it is opened and consumed. This is why wine cellars exist; that's to optimize the aging process.
@@joshharris3040 modern as in Ancient Latin. Acetic is derived from the Latin word Acetum which is Latin for Vinegar. Acid comes from the latin word Acidus, and means "sour"
This is wonderful! I found a beautiful mother at the bottom of my red wine vinegar and wondered what to do with it. Another note on your teeth and your acidic beverages, be sure to consume with a meal or within 20-30 min. Then your mouth with balance to a neutral pH. It's best not to drink or sip it over time because that will keep the mouth acidic and quicken the breakdown of the enamel.
I was told in a fermenting workshop once you cook anything fermented it kills the microorganisms. So another way to preserve those tiny health benefits is to wait until your sauces cool down a bit and then add to them.
Yep cooking with fermented food will kill the probiotics. You'll still get the vitamins, but seems like a long wait for something good just to kill them off. I guess some people just like the taste.
Thank you so much for this! A couple notes to add: the term for this acid is acetic rather than acidic acid, and I'm wondering if you've tried a little F1 kombucha in your mixture to keep the mold off? I've had mold develop and be resolved by kombucha additions in various things that seem very similar to your situation. Makes a ton of sense to do the dry fruit fermenting - thanks for that tip! Very intuitive yet easier than trying to access the freshest fruit. Awesome! And thanks for the shoutout to take care of our teeth - so important for us raw foodies and fermenters to stay vigilant on (talking to myself :) ).
You do a helluva good job presenting. My sisters and I are all good cooks and I've turned them onto your show because it is so good. One thing I would add---if using fresh fruit (rather than having to use dried fruit,) is to make certain your fruit (some kind of light press) is kept below the surface and that will likely negate the mold growth.
I agree! I have been experimenting this year & have found a fermentation weight works 10x better than stirring daily. I didn’t stir at all with the fermentation weight & grew a beautiful mother! No more stirring for me.
@@tsmith906 I had a friend who used to attach a balloon to the lid to keep out the air when making wine. One time he was making it, and didn't have a balloon and used a condom...lol...I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe
after scourering TH-cam videos, trying to find methods on said projects & step by step, you are the only one that is intricate in you're descriptions, which I now feel satisfied to try because the formula & methods, click into place in my head. Thankyou so much, I think I love you man!😊👍
Makes sense you'd have less mold problems with dried fruit. Its already been preserved once, bacteria already don't like it because it's too dry to live in. The drying process also concentrates the sugars in the fruit, so once its rehydrated there's a larger ratio of sugars seeping out into the liquid, increasing the odds that the right kind of non-harmful sugar eating bacteria will make your vinegar jar its home.
yes.. if using raw fruit might need to sanitize the fruit with something first... wonder even if pressure cooking mildly might do that but then might destroy a lot of nutrients
@@Jay_Kay666 those additives can inhibit acetobacter. Most additives are sulfites which is the same they add to wine to prevent it from becoming vinegar. In other words, to stop acetobacter from taking hold.
@@nuclearmaga9694 Nah. Just leave the water out and add equal parts crude sugar to the fresh fruit and let ferment for a week, drain the juice out, refill with 2 parts water to femented fruit bits and let sit for 3 months. The sugary overload will fight mold and you will have clean organic vinegar with all the great properties we want!
Bruh it’s Acetic Acid not “Acidic Acid”, The “white mold” isn’t mold, just Kahm yeast that is harmless just scoop off; stir twice a day to make sure no actual mold forms tho
Here in the Philippines coconut vinegar is the most common. I've grown to love it, you should try it. I make suka with it adding peppers, onion, garlic it's great on rice
Hey, just a quick tip. The reason your fresh fruits got moldy is there were exposed to air, to prevent molding simply put something with a litthe bit of weight on top of them to submerge them in water fully. ( I learned this from making pickles)
Have you tried putting some starters into your batches ? You can use a small amount of aged vinegar as the starter. A certain minimum amount of starter should prevent mold formation and it may give the result faster. And, probably the starter will convert the fruit directly to vinegar without converting to alcohol first.
I love this video! I really appreciate how you’re willing to fail in order to ultimately succeed. This is such an amazing attitude with cooking, and, well….life! Thank you!
Saw this video right when it came out and started the process with raisins. Wow it has come along so well and I am starting to get a great aroma and tang out of mine. Thanks for opening up this door of cooking ingredients!!!
Thank you for the instructions and inspiration! So far I've made raisen vinegar and it's fantastic. Now I'm in the process of making 3 new vinegar batches with dates, apricots and a Scotch ale.
Hey guys, just some extra information, to “help” for a quick process, one can inoculate their fruit with yeast. This isn’t necessary since on organic fruits and vegetables there should be naturally occurring yeast and bacteria clinging to the surface of the fruit. After 10-14 days, strain your liquid from the fruit and heat to 70 C to kill the yeasts off. Then transfer the liquid into a mason jar and *Backslop* the liquid with either the target vinegar to keep the same flavor or apple cider vinegar to not affect the flavor too much. This also is not necessary as you can see in the video but it helps a lot. If you’re a kewl dude and have an airpump/airstone you can run it through for 10-14 days and you have a baby vinegar but again you don’t need this. After, like was said in the video, you can let it age (more preferably in a little wood barrel so water can evaporate into the wood) to get a much sharper flavor. Another little tip, if your fruits/vegetables are Súper not sweet, ethanol is used to increase the alcohol content for our friendly bacteria to use up. If you can’t get ethanol get Vodka or some neutral spirit and it’ll work well. Just to reiterate, you don’t need any of the things I said but I do recommend a little bit of neutral vinegar here and there since it helps to maintain a nice acidity for your vinegar in some parts of the aging process.
As a novice to all this, I was excited to see how easy it all seemed and reading many Contradictory remarks 🤔 Also he said coffee filter or tea towels, but then it shows a lid being opened after day 5 or 6, (can't recall), what's your take on that, much appreciated tks
@@mollreb8777 i noticed that too but assumed that was after the filter period because (i think) at that point it was also strained. I could be wrong though....now i gotta rewatch the video lol.
WOW! YOU ARE AN EXCELLENT FIND! I LOVE FEMENTATION TOO...AND I AM A KITCHEN MAGICIAN..SO YA KNOW THAT NEW AND UNIQUE HEALTHY OPTIONS TO CREATE NEW RECIPIES IS THE BEST THING TO OUR KIND! 💕 YOUR STUDIO KITCHEN I EXTRA HEART!!
vinegar from Old French vinaigre "vinegar," from vin "wine" (from Latin vinum) + aigre "sour". In Latin, it was vinum acetum "wine turned sour," acetum for short (see acetic) ! Spread the word...
It comes from latin, not french. “Vinum”that means wine and “acer” that means sour. In most latin languages the translation of those two words turn into vinegar, for example in portuguese: vinho (vinum) acre (acer).
It's like you read my mind! I watched a cooking show and one of the ingredients used in the dish was pineapple vinegar. It made me want to try to make some since its definitely not something you can buy at a normal grocery store.
You can easily make kombucha vinegar using all kinds of different teas like hibiscus flour tea it’s wonderful and full of probiotics. Just allow your regular kombucha to ferment for a longer time.
Hey Mike, late to the game, but had a thought: I wonder if your success with dried fruit had something to do with the fact that most dried fruit are treated with sulfur dioxide, which inhibits fungal and mold growth.
If he is using organic product, which I would surely think for anyone fermenting this much, you would not have that issue. But the fermentation can happen quicker because the amount of sugar in a dry product is several times the amount in a fresh product and the overall volume is generally about 20% so you're getting several times as much into the jar.
That's pretty cool. I consume a lot of apple cider vinegar with the mother and have often wondered how difficult it would be to make my own, but never imagined it would be so simple. Makes me want to try a turmeric, parsley, apple cider vinegar.
I wanted to share what you in🙃🙃 spurned after watching this several weeks back. I was gardening at the time and had several healthy dandelion plants I had to remove. Full of yellow flowers, spring! I thought, let’s try these to make vinegar. I didn’t use the root to avoid dirt and cleaned the greens and blooms 🌼🌱. I did add a little sugar put it a gallon glass jar with a coffee filter over it. … it was really good. Mild but a smooth fresh taste. It was great for making Switchel. It’s all gone and I’m waiting on my next experiment, ☘️ clover. 🤞 Thank you for inspiring me 😊
You could also add stir bars to the bottoms of your jars and use an electric stir plate. If you're feeling ambitious, you could also buy some cheap gears, attach them in series and have them linked up by a rubber band to a dc motor, then put strong magnets on the gears with a film, like plexiglass, above them for the jars to sit on. In this way, you could have dozens of jars being constantly stirred and not break the bank. This also has the added benefit of preventing additional mold spores from contaminating the mix every time you open the jar. Another thing to consider is saving the mother of the vinegar for future batches. Assuming you measured and started with the exact same ingredients but might have totally different end results, saving the best mother each time you create a vinegar will make future batches much better. It's also important to remember how that mother acted on those fruits. What was the acidity of the fruits? The sugar content of the jar? How much fiber was in the fruits? Did some batches fight off mold better than others? The mother of vinegar is a living composite organism and they develop their own defense against intruders, resistances to alcohol toxicity and low pH resistances in much the same way we have developed brewing yeast over time that is far more resistant to alcohol toxity than their naturally occuring cousins. These cultures can be stored away for months with some sugar water and a filtered lid, especially in the fridge and if you select the right culture for innoculating a specific fruit type, you'll be able to produce a far better product :) Another thing to consider is fractional freezing to increase the concentration of acidic acid as desired. You place the vinegar into the freezer for a short period of time, quickly strain off the first ice crystals that form, and let that ice melt in a separate container. Repeat several times, capturing the first ice that forms. What you'll be left with is two jars, the inital vinegar with most of the acidic acid removed and a second jar primarily with acidic acid. You cook the initial vinegar to remove some water and concentrate the flavours from the fruits, then add the acidic acid back to your initial vinegar, or you can just discard a portion of your intitial vinegar(you might want to do this if some of the flavour profiles are sensitive to heat). As you've reduced the water content, the acid represents a higher % of the mix. This is possible because acidic acid freezes at a slighlty higher temperature than water. This is far easier than distilling the acid out due to the precision involed in that process and allows you to preserve more flavours from your product. Also also, consider dehydrating fruit peels and storing them away until you want to make vinegars with them! This way you can build up a surplus and reduce your waste.
I also love to ferment and make my own jun tea, kimchi, yogurts and kefirs. I used to be a math and science teacher. It’s really important to beta test your videos with a wide variety of people. If you find a science editor, they’ll correct your “acidic acid” to acetic acid. This will make you a better educator and also increase your credibility. Just FYI, ethyl alcohol (AKA ethanol) and lactic acid are the other two most common fermentation byproducts.
Thank you for being kind. I was reading another comment thread on the same subject and it was like reading the notes from a bunch of teenage girls. You said the same thing but with kindness and class. Bravo!
@@scottaseigel5715 oh my gosh! What a great idea! It makes sense that they would. I I must get some scoby going so I can try this. When I got my first mother a long time ago I knew very little about how to care for them. So, into a giant bowl mine went. I learned pretty quickly that if given the room the mother will grow to the size of Texas. 🤣😅 Might just be a fail-safe using scoby for sourdough starter? Hmmmm.
@@mousepolice55 the sourdough SCOBY is initially derived environmentally from the microbiota of the grain. Water and flour are the only ingredients! Alternatively, a tiny bit of sourdough (the SCOBY) can be used to start a new batch as big as the available grain. A wet lump of flour floating inside the ISS should eventually “sour” when the yeasts and bacteria on the grain propagate. Things like bleach and radiation may harm microorganisms, so it’s probably better to make your sourdough away from the harsh radiation of space, but my thinking was a sourdough the size of Saturn!
Careful with storing the vinegar in canning jars for long periods. I had a pint jar at my work cubicle during covid and when I got back to the office, the vinegar had eaten away at the lid and my finger went right through the top. Thanks for the video! Great work.
5th COVID lockdown: Started the evening with a curiosity search about how vinegar is made. Ended the evening with a jar of dried currants submerged in water. Yep, checks out.
Just realised my jar of currants is now 4 weeks old. Time flies when you're in lockdown. It's just starting to smell vinegary and fizzing. Hope I don't survive covid just die by dodgy homemade vinegar!
With fresh fruit it's equal weight fruit to brown sugar.(hydroscopic) The sugar acts on fresh fruit by absorbing the water in fruit. (Reduce lingering bacteria besides lacto & acetic) The liquid from this stage of fermentation can be used on your garden plants. The spent solids added to distilled water can then be converted to vinegars.
I know this is an old video. BUT PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD take the pH at the start. pH should be at or lower than 4.6 pH. This will stop mold and the scary botulism monster. You can add something acidic like citrus juice, citric acid, ect. (bonus points if is raw vinegar or sour tasting kombucha because it will have a culture of the bacteria that turns alcohol to acetic acid)
I made a massive batch of apple vinegar several years ago with the scraps from a huge apple harvest that I canned. The fermentation went great, but I was so disappointed with the end product I jarred it up and set it in the back of my pantry for at least a year. Hence it was forgotten until my mom was digging around in my pantry, and found it. She took it, and had it for about a year before she opened it, and it was AMAZING stuff. So much better than day one, and now I feel like a fool for giving it to her 😂. We're planning another big apple canning project, and I imagine a lot more than scraps will go to vinegar this year!
5:40 like u said, first it need to be converted to alcohol. To get alcohol, u Cannot expose them to air, hence the failure. u need proper air-lock. Once converted to alcohol, then u can use this cloth /paper cover. Additional tips, alcohol percentage is related to amount of sugar used.
I recently made my first naturally fermented soda drinks, using pineapple and combinations with other fruit. After taking out most of the liquid of the one which was pineapple and my homemade elderberry starter, I left some of the liquid in the jar together with the piece of pineapple and left it uncovered on the counter for days. I was about to throw it out when I discovered it had turned into THE most fragrant vinegar!
Your last drink, add some peeled ginger and fresh water, chill 24 hours. It is 1800s haymakers punch. Great video, I'm gonna make some fruit vinegars now!
@@brettjc0483 oooo that would be cool :) I wanna see if he does fermented glutinous rice too! (Which isn't exactly sake, used more for Chinese cooking and desserts)
@@brettjc0483 it is!if you have a ranch 99 or a local asian supermarket near you, see if you can find it! It's usually sold in glass jars with the rice and rice wine it's in :)
Been living with a beekeeper for years - can safely say, do NOT use boiling water over honey, it kills the good stuff (yeah you know what i'm talking about) in honey
This video reminded me that I have a very old (but unopened) bag of chopped dates in my cupboard. I think I'll try to make vinegar out of it. I even have a partial sachet of brewer's yeast to get the party (alcohol fermentation) started quicker. I'll definitely be using an airlock until the alcohol fermentation finishes (to hopefully avoid infection).
going to have to give this a go at some point. some of the things I thought would try with: coconut vinegar, pineapple vinegar, tomato vinegar (for pasta sauces specifically), and go for some certain blends of fruits. also thought: would there be a way to make a truffle vinegar? (it is a fungus and has low sugar content, but maybe by adding some sort of external sugar source (honeycomb?) could add just enough sugars to let it ferment.)
Nice idea with the truffle vinegar... I'd try making a broth with dried truffels, add some sugar as you said, and, when it's cooled down, a splash of beer for the yeast. Definitely worth a try.
One of my teachers told me about a time when he was in (I think) a culinary class put balsamic that was she's for a really long time on ice cream. He said it was just like syrup it was so thick
That white mold is not mold but Kahm Yeast. Yeast will form as a film. Mold will form as small dots with each for growing. Yeast is safe, mold may not be, however mild will not survive under a PH of 4.5 To make wine, we want to keep the air out, vinegar needs O2
When you make fruit wines you need a lot of fruit chopped small. You should research wine making. You'll get a better product. Then you should look into how to make vinegar. There are online resources you might find useful.
what I find weird is that he had a Huge acetobater culture behind him (the kombucha SCOBY) and decide not to use it. We call it "the mother of vinegar"(rough translation) here. If he just took some of those slime disks, chopped it and put it in the fruit jars, the fermentation would go way smoother. Maybe adding some dry yeast would make it even better, but regular kombucha already have plenty bread yeast.
Been making my own alcohol (wine and mead) for a few years now Never had a batch turn into vinegar thankfully, but the science behind it is really interesting! Might have to give it a try one day once I have some "sacrificial" batches Edit: No wonder it hasn't turned into vinegar 🤣 all my alcohol ends up being 14-16% abv Question though: As far as the stir every day thing to prevent mold, would a weight (like you might use for sauerkraut or kimchi) to hold the fruit below the surface be of aid in that instance? In theory you wouldnt need to stir or worry about mold because it would be submerged
I've made vinegar with summer of my extra homemade hard cider. I didn't stir it, just left it alone for a month or so, and it was fine - no mold, just a mild vinegar. This makes me think you might be right about the fruit.
I haven't tried any vinegar experiments as of yet but I did try to make some berry wine early in the summer and despite washing the fruit (it had been frozen too after picking) I somehow still ended up with mold on top despite the yeast, sadly had to toss the entire thing but I think it lends credit to the theory :D next time I'm definitely using a weight to submerge it
Pro home cooks: This was a very interesting tutorial; thank you. I do have a few of questions: Why did you not weigh your fruit down in the jars, so that none of it was above the waterline? Why did you choose an aerobic instead of an anaerobic fermentation for the first stage of the process? And why did you choose to bottle your finished product in such large bottles relative to the amount of product that you had to store? In terms of your dried fruit versus fresh fruit starters, can you comment on the relative quantity of each that you used, relative to the jars, please? My questions are in earnest, and not intended as passive aggressive criticism. Since I had so many questions, I figure it might be better to make that clear at the outset; and I am willing to put forward the thought processes behind my inquiries if you ask.
I had the same questions. If fact, I didn't realize people did both of the fermentations together. I think the answer to most of these questions is that he is making small amounts for home use. Still, all that extra air in the jars made me nervous, but it didn't seem to be a problem.
dont rasins have a compound that helps stave off molds? i know some cultures add rasins and things to help with a safe fermentation. also isn't the first portion of converting the fresh fruits sugars into alcohol anerobic? so you need to cover it for the first round then once you reach your alcohol content then you remove the lid and let oxygen get in there
*FINALLY!* Another use for my 'SCOBY MOTEL'! (to speed things up) I've got apples going right now, but the next trip to the store I'll be in the bulk food area buying dried fruit. *THANKS!*
Couple quick questions. 1) Did you just leave it out in room temperature? What if it's summer 90+ degrees is that too hot? 2) How long should this last in the pantry? Is it like wine in that it will last essentially forever and get better over time? 3) Did you use the fruit after making the vinegar for anything? Can you use it for anything? 4) Do you know if dried fruit powders will work?
I have a few questions: 1. I keep seeing online that you need a vinegar mother in order to create vinegar. What is the difference between this method and the ones where you need a vinegar mother? 2. Can you use the old batches to make new batches of vinegar or do you need to start the process from scratch again, when making a new batch?
I make vinagar each year, I don't stir it, the white substance is not bad it's actually mother vinegar scoby which is fine you can remove it when it's ready but you need to make sure scoby is white firm and without a bad smell when it's ready ,the most important thing is the mixture of fruit and water should be sweet if not you should add less water or add sugar, you can blend it like a smoothie, for better result I add a pinch of yeast ,oxygen is important so a cloth is better to cover it
I once tried to make mango wine. I was in this wine making zone. Grapes, beetroot, ginger, ginger-beetroot, and mango. Other than the mango, all the others turned out well. Grape and ginger-beetroot were the best. I'll try mango vinegar soon... I loved the way you created this video. Look forward to more.
Many people have posted very interesting comments. I have a feeling that with dried fruits you may have achieved a very different sugar concentration. If you didn't account for the muh higher sugar content of dried fruit and used the same ratio for fresh and dried, then fresh fruits may have led to lower alcohol content (
Hi everyone, I wanted to add to this video that for the most consistent results, this method isn't great. I mean, it obviously worked, and if Mike says it's good, it's probably good! However, for the most consistent results you have to treat making vinegar as the two-step process Mike outlined in the beginning of the video, that is:
1) Convert the sugars into alcohol (alcoholic fermentation)
2) Convert the alcohol into acetic acid (acetic fermentation)
This way, you can better optimize each step. Alcoholic fermentation is most optimal in anaerobic conditions (in absence of oxygen), while acetic fermentation is most optimal in aerobic conditions (in presence of oxygen). Additionally, by letting both processes take place simultaneously, the alcohol is quickly converted by the acetobacter, which means that the alcohol content never quite gets high enough to prevent infection.
So first, you focus on creating alcohol, by creating an anaerobic environment. This can be done easily by just slapping an airlock on a jar. The yeast will get started on its own, using some of the oxygen and pushing the rest out of the jar until you're left with only CO2, when the anaerobic fermentation gets started. After a week or two, this will be done. You'll see the lack of activity in the airlock, and the yeast starting to settle out. Draw the liquid from the top, maybe heat it to kill the yeast, and leave exposed to air for the acetic fermentation. For the best results, I'd recommend adding some (brewer's) yeast in the beginning and adding some acetobacter here. You can add acetobacter by adding a few tablespoons of a non-pasteurized vinegar, that still has live acetobacter in it. After some time, you may see a slimy sheet develop, similar to a SCOBY. This is a vinegar mother, and contains live acetobacter. You can reuse this to inoculate another batch of vinegar later, so you don't have to compromise the taste of your vinegar by adding the acetobacter.
I really hope this helps people to make the most amazing vinegar! I made pear vinegar from some leftover pear cider using this method, and it's one of the best vinegars I've ever had.
Edit: so this is an 8-month-old comment and I still get questions about vinegar making. I just want to direct anyone with questions about the process I'm describing to these videos by Glen and Friends cooking:
th-cam.com/video/Y-Cn1u8qiKE/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/bxH9tL78r6g/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/gfp7R2qNsCo/w-d-xo.html
Two of them are about making vinegar from scratch (ACV and pineapple vinegar), the last one starts with a brew (beer vinegar). These videos provide a pretty good overview of the process, in my opinion.
I ask this as someone who doesn't know much about this stuff, but is there a risk of botulism from fermenting in the absence of O2, or does something like the generation of alcohol prevent that from happening?
@@scout3801 Technically, there's always a risk of botulism. However, if you clean your equipment every time, botulism is just not prevalent enough to really become a problem. The only time botulism is an issue is when you're canning something. Botulinum bacteria can survive boiling, and will grow after all other microbes have been killed by the boiling. With brewing, the risk is negligible, but exactly why that is I don't know.
What do you mean by "the yeast starting to settle out?"
@@tracikoskinen1704 The yeast will drop out of suspension and settle at the bottom.
Superbassio The risk of botulism is so rare in brewing/fermenting because the PH drops pretty rapidly and is rendered an unsuitable environment for botulism within a couple days. That’s why canning acidic foods like pickles, tomatoes etc. only needs the boiling water bath to be safe - while canning salmon, green beans etc. require pressure cooking to be safe.
And when you’re fermenting and something goes wrong where botulism could thrive in the environment after a week, you’ll also know as soon as you smell it that something went terribly wrong.
The "vinegar" isn't stable until all of the oxygen is removed. If you want to store or age vinegar, reduce the head in the container so the surface of the liquid doesn't come in contact with air. A narrow-necked bottle works better for this than wide mouth jars. If you don't do this, when the alcohol is all consumed, the acetobacters will begin to consume the acetic acid and you will end up back at plain water. Alternatively, you can pasteurize the vinegar to eliminate the acetobacters and any yeasts present. Vinegars may change chemical composition over time, but "aging" of vinegars is mostly done in wooden containers (viz. Balsamic vinegars of Modena) so that there is some evaporation of the water through the wood, and perhaps dissolution of wood resins into the solution (akin to aging alcohol in wood). Use plastic lids on widemouth jars to prevent rusting of the metal lids. Consider using wine-making yeasts to better control the quality of your alcohol fermentations.
I was wondering about this. I assume pasteurization is a matter of heating it to a certain point in this case?
Yeah, wine isn't aging in a glass bottle either. Aging comes from the barrel.
MrSjsjs Won’t pasteurization kill off all of the healthy bacteria? We don’t pasteurized when we make kombucha.
@@bestja2137 Bacteria contribute to aging as well (like malolactic fermentation) and they don't need to be in barrels for this. Even after yeast is done there are still a lot of living things altering the product.
Aging is usually refered to malolactic fermentation and while it can happen in a bottle, that would result in CO2 buildup, making it slighty effervescent
.
A tip for a better dust cover. Instead of using rubber bands to secure the coffee filter, lay the filter over the Mason/Kerr jar and secure it with a Mason jar metal ring without the lid insert.
THANK YOU FOR GREAT ADVICE❣️🎄☃️🇨🇦
Hey I like that! Don't have to locate rubbers
@The Grumpy Horticulturist what kind of tinctures do you made, are these for medical purpose
Awesome ider, TY FROM CHESTERMERE.
@darby5987 I did it! That was a great idea! You da man!
I went for it. I started 2 jars of dried fruit vinegar! Raisins and dried plums/prunes. Its what I had. After a week, the raisins were going full on. I could smell the alcohol as I stirred it daily. The prunes/dried plums were not doing squat. So, I cheated a bit. I spooned about 1/2 tsp of the liquid from the raisins into the dried plum/prune jar, and a few days later it started bubbling and I could just start to smell the alcohol in it. I've done several of fermentation... kombucha, both water and milk kefir, ACV. So, now its fun to add vinegar to my list! Thanks for this!
I tried it once with raisins but it got moldy before any fermentation happened
@@TheJavaGuru78 very nice. Even now, 10 months later, they are nice to cook with. They are both strong flavors, so don't need much. Like a deep red wine. After 5ish months, I strained out the solids and bottled them in an old kombucha bottle and a qt jar.
Wow. I had no idea. I live in Japan and it`s so hard to find the Bragg`s vinegar, or it`s like $100 to ship, so now I know I can just make my own, I won`t feel so protective of using it. I`m learning so much from you. Thank you!
Put a bit of the Brags into your fresh ferment. Helps it start faster.
Mizkan makes a variety of vinegars
@@hertrueself It doesn't say "with the mother" for nothing.
@@hertrueself but it costs $100 to ship to them, I don't think it's worth the half spoonful
@@sfr2107 Braggs is ok, not out of this world, you can make the same or better yourself. Save the 100 and spend a bit of that on fresh fruit. Good luck and good fermenting
I accidentally made lemon vinegar. It was fantastic! It made me want to create more. Thanks for explaining how!
What u originally intended to make 😅
What's the recipe to makr??
@@leoking5152, I had lemon in a jar sitting on the counter. I don’t remember exactly, it was an accident after all.
I'm guessing you were originally making lemon water to drink and forgot about it and made lemon vinegar lol
Thank you for passing on your experimenting experience with fresh fruit. I started a mango vinegar with mangoes I had just dehydrated and it is great! I’m only into about week for but am loving what I’m smelling and tasting. Just goes to show you even when your getting old (in your 70’s) you can still learn great things!
Great idea! Maybe I'll try this with the scraps of fruits I dehydrate too like my rinds, and just add enough sugared ones to make the ferment work.
Love this! ❤️. I'm going to try mango 🥭 vinegar!
WOOOW! MANGO VINEGAR! THAT'S MY FAVE FRUIT AND WE HAVE TONS OF MANGOES WHERE I LIVE. I'LL MAKE MINE W/MANGOES.
BTW, I'M IN MY 70'S TOO. WE HAVE TO KEEP LEARNING ALL THE WAY TO 100YRS OLD AND BEYOND. THAT'S THE SECRET TO STAY YOUTHFUL.
🌺✌🏾💚🌺
No need of yeast and sugar ??
I’ve been making my own ACV for a year now, and you don’t actually need whole chunks of fruit. I use just the peel and the core, adding a little sugar to the water. Any time I make an apple pie or homemade apple sauce (which I use regularly in vegan baking) I also make vinegar so that no part of the apple goes to waste! I drink it mixed with ice water and cinnamon, and it makes the most delicious, refreshing, appley beverage!
I feel dumber now for buying it, will try some now.
I just started making vinegars
I first started with a handful of the last blackberries of the season and some dandelions. That will be interesting! Then I heard of banana and mojito mint from Heidi at Rain Country. She said it comes out tasting like lemon! The last couple of days I've been working through pears. Canning, vinegar (3 qt. jars) of peels and cores and finishing with pear butter. Love this time of year but whew!
@Poison Ivy Srubs are pretty tasty :) Ive made a few with friends as a wine alternative.
Haha what you do called junk vinegar.are you joking or what? did you studied science ? Vinegar is made from the juice or cider of the fruits with a condition that the juice must be at least 10 Brix which means having 100 grams of fructose in one liter of the juice .go read real science instead of following of a uneducated youtubers
@@chawquee That was unkind and condescending.😕 And do you believe there was 'real science' a millennia ago when fermentation began?
Another nice trick is when you have a fruit wine (which is essentially what you have after step 1) is to fortify it with vodka to get the alcohol up to 20%+ and it'll be stable for a fairly long time, perfect for usage in food as well as vinegar.
Love it. Don't give up on vinegar made from fresh fruit though. Give blackberries a try, they make an excellent vinegar. I like to save the spent berries, blend them, and use the mixture as a condiment--it makes for a great mustard.
One way you can prevent mold is to create a weight so that the fruit is completely submerged in the liquid. Put some dry beans in a plastic bag and stick it on top. You can also minimize headspace (the space between the top of the liquid and the lid). Just make sure there is still enough air to allow the fermentation to occur.
this!!!!!
I made blackberry shrubs that were so good I could not stop drinking them all summer. Incredible flavor!
B.
Blackberries make the most delicious shrub on the planet. Bar none.
@@Brineytoes what is a blackberry shrub?
If you're using a weight, do you still need to stir it daily and replace the weight or is it a set it and forget it type of thing?
On a lark, my wife and I tried using an organic grade b maple syrup. We went through the process and then put it at the back of a shelf to age. Three years and a quarantine later, we found it this week. It's incredible! I'd put it on par with some of the best top shelf balsamic vinegars I've ever been fortunate enough to sample. Surprisingly, it's fantastic with parmesan and some other cheeses we had on hand.
So you mixed with water and let it be? And got a vinegar from maple?
@@sfr2107 my exact thoughts? He didn't explain his process?
R mcgrath vinegar making is not like making beer or wine. Its a standard process, from other comments from experienced makers i see here in the comments. So, no one needs to elaborate on how they did it. Cause anyone can look it up, cheers
Dang. Sounds better than finding dollars in some old jeans😋
😎
Excellent video….
I’ve been creating vinegar for 40 years …
you gave me a new outlook…👏👏
The "mold" @6:33 looks more like yeast to me. If it was white,fuzzy with some black coloring than yeah its mold, but if was just white specks than it was yeast. You can also tell the difference between the two because yeast will make the jar smell like bread or beer.
I made vinegar this past summer from mango & plums using kefir water starter. Using a glass weight would've also help prevent the development of the yeast and mold on the top layer.
Agreed! That was kahm yeast.
Yup! Just cover the fruit up and keep it submerged! Then no more mold 👍🏽
if it was actual mold, it would come back with a vengence even after removing it out, since it's all within the entirety of the vinegar; not the top. def kahm.
I use snack size ziplock bags filled with water or air as "weights" to hold the material under water. No need to buy any glass weights unless it is your thing. I collect things.
I had a massive kahm yeast growth on my mango vinegar. I ignored it for a months it it resolved itself. The kahm was gone and a beautiful, thick Mother of Vinegat formed on top. I think I read the sweeter the mix is, the more likely you will have a big growth of yeast.
First time I've ever seen a toothpaste as a sponsor... and yet it fits.
Binging with Babish was sponsored by Sensodyne toothpaste few times.
That pronamel stuff really is spectacular though.
@@sigma6656 Best Toothpaste I've ever used.
I have an excess of wild blackberries that grow around my home and now I know what to do with them, because I LOVE vinegar! Thanks!!
I generally add in herbs and spices I grow to the vinegars I make. It really adds an extra profile if you throw some rosemary and onion and garlic in an apple vinegar or basil and dried cayenne peppers in a blackberry vinegar (some of the best tastes right there) and then leave them in canning jars (or whatever you normally use) in the fridge for a week or two. Vinegar keeps well and just soaks in more flavor over time
That sounds amazing
@@spencerhinton1410 yesss. speak on this... I just pickled with that same combo ( herb mix) and it is fire!
Sounds tasty!
ACETIC acid, not "acidic acid" just an FYI
Cringed so hard when he said acidic acid.......
I favor non-acidic acid :-)
"Acetic acid" is the modern term, but it comes from "acidic acid." It's a bit weird, but he can use that term if he wants. And wine does still age in the bottle, even if that's not what is desired or intended.
@@avmrock Wine ages from the moment it's done fermenting until the point it is drank. There is a bulk aging, which is done in large vats prior to bottling, but once in the bottle it will continue to age until it is opened and consumed. This is why wine cellars exist; that's to optimize the aging process.
@@joshharris3040 modern as in Ancient Latin. Acetic is derived from the Latin word Acetum which is Latin for Vinegar. Acid comes from the latin word Acidus, and means "sour"
This is wonderful! I found a beautiful mother at the bottom of my red wine vinegar and wondered what to do with it.
Another note on your teeth and your acidic beverages, be sure to consume with a meal or within 20-30 min. Then your mouth with balance to a neutral pH. It's best not to drink or sip it over time because that will keep the mouth acidic and quicken the breakdown of the enamel.
Pickling onions just got a lot more interesting...
Wait a moment. It's my playlist responding to my playlist! Now, if Babish shows up, I think my head might just explode.
Uh oh.
@@RickElphinstone so true ...
everything basically got more interesting in the kitchen haha endless options
Yooooooo, I never even thought of this!
I was told in a fermenting workshop once you cook anything fermented it kills the microorganisms. So another way to preserve those tiny health benefits is to wait until your sauces cool down a bit and then add to them.
Yep cooking with fermented food will kill the probiotics. You'll still get the vitamins, but seems like a long wait for something good just to kill them off. I guess some people just like the taste.
Thank you so much for this! A couple notes to add: the term for this acid is acetic rather than acidic acid, and I'm wondering if you've tried a little F1 kombucha in your mixture to keep the mold off? I've had mold develop and be resolved by kombucha additions in various things that seem very similar to your situation. Makes a ton of sense to do the dry fruit fermenting - thanks for that tip! Very intuitive yet easier than trying to access the freshest fruit. Awesome! And thanks for the shoutout to take care of our teeth - so important for us raw foodies and fermenters to stay vigilant on (talking to myself :) ).
The first days with the water and fruit You can get yeast water. I did It with raisins and the bread that came out from that was delicious!
@@CloudedShine Yep! Water with yeast in it that can be used for baking.
You do a helluva good job presenting. My sisters and I are all good cooks and I've turned them onto your show because it is so good.
One thing I would add---if using fresh fruit (rather than having to use dried fruit,) is to make certain your fruit (some kind of light press) is kept below the surface and that will likely negate the mold growth.
So will making the alcohol with an airlock first. Mold cant survive in alcohol but acetic acid can
I agree! I have been experimenting this year & have found a fermentation weight works 10x better than stirring daily. I didn’t stir at all with the fermentation weight & grew a beautiful mother! No more stirring for me.
@@tsmith906 I had a friend who used to attach a balloon to the lid to keep out the air when making wine. One time he was making it, and didn't have a balloon and used a condom...lol...I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe
@@scpatl4now lmaoo umm-
@@scpatl4now 😂🤣😂
after scourering TH-cam videos, trying to find methods on said projects & step by step, you are the only one that is intricate in you're descriptions, which I now feel satisfied to try because the formula & methods, click into place in my head.
Thankyou so much, I think I love you man!😊👍
Makes sense you'd have less mold problems with dried fruit. Its already been preserved once, bacteria already don't like it because it's too dry to live in. The drying process also concentrates the sugars in the fruit, so once its rehydrated there's a larger ratio of sugars seeping out into the liquid, increasing the odds that the right kind of non-harmful sugar eating bacteria will make your vinegar jar its home.
yes.. if using raw fruit might need to sanitize the fruit with something first... wonder even if pressure cooking mildly might do that but then might destroy a lot of nutrients
@@nuclearmaga9694 how can you sanitize it, when you need the bacteria and yeast in the fruit to ferment it??
Also raisins and store bought dried fruit have additives to prevent mold.
@@Jay_Kay666 those additives can inhibit acetobacter. Most additives are sulfites which is the same they add to wine to prevent it from becoming vinegar. In other words, to stop acetobacter from taking hold.
@@nuclearmaga9694 Nah. Just leave the water out and add equal parts crude sugar to the fresh fruit and let ferment for a week, drain the juice out, refill with 2 parts water to femented fruit bits and let sit for 3 months. The sugary overload will fight mold and you will have clean organic vinegar with all the great properties we want!
Bruh it’s Acetic Acid not “Acidic Acid”,
The “white mold” isn’t mold, just Kahm yeast that is harmless just scoop off; stir twice a day to make sure no actual mold forms tho
Came here to say this about the "white mold". Kahm yeast is safe and harmless.
Someone didn't pay attention in HS chemistry class! Haha!
Skipped the "science" portion of this video.
I feel like he mentioned Kahm yeast in some of his other videos before so he probably knows
Kahm yeast taste disgusting though and can make the liquid taste disgusting too.
Here in the Philippines coconut vinegar is the most common. I've grown to love it, you should try it. I make suka with it adding peppers, onion, garlic it's great on rice
Hey, just a quick tip.
The reason your fresh fruits got moldy is there were exposed to air, to prevent molding simply put something with a litthe bit of weight on top of them to submerge them in water fully. ( I learned this from making pickles)
do you need to throw them out if there is mold on the top?
Have you tried putting some starters into your batches ? You can use a small amount of aged vinegar as the starter. A certain minimum amount of starter should prevent mold formation and it may give the result faster. And, probably the starter will convert the fruit directly to vinegar without converting to alcohol first.
I love this video! I really appreciate how you’re willing to fail in order to ultimately succeed. This is such an amazing attitude with cooking, and, well….life! Thank you!
Saw this video right when it came out and started the process with raisins. Wow it has come along so well and I am starting to get a great aroma and tang out of mine. Thanks for opening up this door of cooking ingredients!!!
I followed your lead and made a batch of raisin and pineapple (from dried fruit). Fantastic! I highly recommend the pineapple.
This is awesome, and I’m glad to see people that like doing these things. I like learning this stuff.
Thank you for the instructions and inspiration! So far I've made raisen vinegar and it's fantastic. Now I'm in the process of making 3 new vinegar batches with dates, apricots and a Scotch ale.
It would be kool to do a follow up on this to show how well the flavors improved and whether or not there was a peak in flavour
Hey guys, just some extra information, to “help” for a quick process, one can inoculate their fruit with yeast. This isn’t necessary since on organic fruits and vegetables there should be naturally occurring yeast and bacteria clinging to the surface of the fruit.
After 10-14 days, strain your liquid from the fruit and heat to 70 C to kill the yeasts off. Then transfer the liquid into a mason jar and *Backslop* the liquid with either the target vinegar to keep the same flavor or apple cider vinegar to not affect the flavor too much. This also is not necessary as you can see in the video but it helps a lot.
If you’re a kewl dude and have an airpump/airstone you can run it through for 10-14 days and you have a baby vinegar but again you don’t need this. After, like was said in the video, you can let it age (more preferably in a little wood barrel so water can evaporate into the wood) to get a much sharper flavor.
Another little tip, if your fruits/vegetables are Súper not sweet, ethanol is used to increase the alcohol content for our friendly bacteria to use up. If you can’t get ethanol get Vodka or some neutral spirit and it’ll work well.
Just to reiterate, you don’t need any of the things I said but I do recommend a little bit of neutral vinegar here and there since it helps to maintain a nice acidity for your vinegar in some parts of the aging process.
Someone read nomas guide to fermentation
As a novice to all this, I was excited to see how easy it all seemed and reading many Contradictory remarks 🤔
Also he said coffee filter or tea towels, but then it shows a lid being opened after day 5 or 6, (can't recall), what's your take on that, much appreciated tks
@@mollreb8777 i noticed that too but assumed that was after the filter period because (i think) at that point it was also strained. I could be wrong though....now i gotta rewatch the video lol.
This is a video I've wanted for my whole adult life. Thank you so much!
WOW! YOU ARE AN EXCELLENT FIND! I LOVE FEMENTATION TOO...AND I AM A KITCHEN MAGICIAN..SO YA KNOW THAT NEW AND UNIQUE HEALTHY OPTIONS TO CREATE NEW RECIPIES IS THE BEST THING TO OUR KIND! 💕 YOUR STUDIO KITCHEN I EXTRA HEART!!
vinegar from Old French vinaigre "vinegar," from vin "wine" (from Latin vinum) + aigre "sour". In Latin, it was vinum acetum "wine turned sour," acetum for short (see acetic) ! Spread the word...
Vinaigre is not just old french it is the world currently used too.
It comes from latin, not french. “Vinum”that means wine and “acer” that means sour. In most latin languages the translation of those two words turn into vinegar, for example in portuguese: vinho (vinum) acre (acer).
Cool
@@antonionunes4115 exactly. it's not from french it's latin, bc in spanish it's vinagre (vino + agrio) or in catalan vinagre (vi + agre)
"Butter"?
It's like you read my mind! I watched a cooking show and one of the ingredients used in the dish was pineapple vinegar. It made me want to try to make some since its definitely not something you can buy at a normal grocery store.
You can easily make kombucha vinegar using all kinds of different teas like hibiscus flour tea it’s wonderful and full of probiotics. Just allow your regular kombucha to ferment for a longer time.
You are a talented man and a gifted instructor. Thank you for these videos.
Hey Mike, late to the game, but had a thought: I wonder if your success with dried fruit had something to do with the fact that most dried fruit are treated with sulfur dioxide, which inhibits fungal and mold growth.
I agree it's the first thing it came to my mind!
@@katerinapanagiotidou8937 Me too
But wouldn't that also kill the good bacteria? / the vinegar itself?
If he is using organic product, which I would surely think for anyone fermenting this much, you would not have that issue. But the fermentation can happen quicker because the amount of sugar in a dry product is several times the amount in a fresh product and the overall volume is generally about 20% so you're getting several times as much into the jar.
The fact that it worked better with dry fruit was because of slow release of suger
Fresh fruit looses suger very quickly
Raisin vinegar in a Vindaloo curry is absolutely sublime!
What is the best way to incorporate vinegar into the vindaloo curry?
That's pretty cool. I consume a lot of apple cider vinegar with the mother and have often wondered how difficult it would be to make my own, but never imagined it would be so simple. Makes me want to try a turmeric, parsley, apple cider vinegar.
Wow, that is very interesting. Sure would like to know how that turned out!
I wanted to share what you in🙃🙃 spurned after watching this several weeks back. I was gardening at the time and had several healthy dandelion plants I had to remove. Full of yellow flowers, spring! I thought, let’s try these to make vinegar. I didn’t use the root to avoid dirt and cleaned the greens and blooms 🌼🌱. I did add a little sugar put it a gallon glass jar with a coffee filter over it. … it was really good. Mild but a smooth fresh taste. It was great for making Switchel. It’s all gone and I’m waiting on my next experiment, ☘️ clover. 🤞 Thank you for inspiring me 😊
Man this is really good stuff!
I keep learning more on this channel than online lessons
This looks so incredibly easy! I love dehydrating and now I can take it to the next step by making my own vinegar! Thank you!!!
You could also add stir bars to the bottoms of your jars and use an electric stir plate. If you're feeling ambitious, you could also buy some cheap gears, attach them in series and have them linked up by a rubber band to a dc motor, then put strong magnets on the gears with a film, like plexiglass, above them for the jars to sit on. In this way, you could have dozens of jars being constantly stirred and not break the bank. This also has the added benefit of preventing additional mold spores from contaminating the mix every time you open the jar.
Another thing to consider is saving the mother of the vinegar for future batches. Assuming you measured and started with the exact same ingredients but might have totally different end results, saving the best mother each time you create a vinegar will make future batches much better. It's also important to remember how that mother acted on those fruits. What was the acidity of the fruits? The sugar content of the jar? How much fiber was in the fruits? Did some batches fight off mold better than others?
The mother of vinegar is a living composite organism and they develop their own defense against intruders, resistances to alcohol toxicity and low pH resistances in much the same way we have developed brewing yeast over time that is far more resistant to alcohol toxity than their naturally occuring cousins.
These cultures can be stored away for months with some sugar water and a filtered lid, especially in the fridge and if you select the right culture for innoculating a specific fruit type, you'll be able to produce a far better product :)
Another thing to consider is fractional freezing to increase the concentration of acidic acid as desired. You place the vinegar into the freezer for a short period of time, quickly strain off the first ice crystals that form, and let that ice melt in a separate container. Repeat several times, capturing the first ice that forms. What you'll be left with is two jars, the inital vinegar with most of the acidic acid removed and a second jar primarily with acidic acid. You cook the initial vinegar to remove some water and concentrate the flavours from the fruits, then add the acidic acid back to your initial vinegar, or you can just discard a portion of your intitial vinegar(you might want to do this if some of the flavour profiles are sensitive to heat). As you've reduced the water content, the acid represents a higher % of the mix. This is possible because acidic acid freezes at a slighlty higher temperature than water. This is far easier than distilling the acid out due to the precision involed in that process and allows you to preserve more flavours from your product.
Also also, consider dehydrating fruit peels and storing them away until you want to make vinegars with them! This way you can build up a surplus and reduce your waste.
I really enjoyed the addition of a little science, nice work!
I also love to ferment and make my own jun tea, kimchi, yogurts and kefirs. I used to be a math and science teacher. It’s really important to beta test your videos with a wide variety of people. If you find a science editor, they’ll correct your “acidic acid” to acetic acid. This will make you a better educator and also increase your credibility. Just FYI, ethyl alcohol (AKA ethanol) and lactic acid are the other two most common fermentation byproducts.
You should create a TH-cam channel and share your formulation or a template of.
Thank you for being kind. I was reading another comment thread on the same subject and it was like reading the notes from a bunch of teenage girls. You said the same thing but with kindness and class. Bravo!
@@mousepolice55 we now own a bakery and it turns out sourdoughs are leavened by SCOBYs as well!
@@scottaseigel5715 oh my gosh! What a great idea! It makes sense that they would. I I must get some scoby going so I can try this. When I got my first mother a long time ago I knew very little about how to care for them. So, into a giant bowl mine went. I learned pretty quickly that if given the room the mother will grow to the size of Texas. 🤣😅
Might just be a fail-safe using scoby for sourdough starter? Hmmmm.
@@mousepolice55 the sourdough SCOBY is initially derived environmentally from the microbiota of the grain. Water and flour are the only ingredients! Alternatively, a tiny bit of sourdough (the SCOBY) can be used to start a new batch as big as the available grain. A wet lump of flour floating inside the ISS should eventually “sour” when the yeasts and bacteria on the grain propagate. Things like bleach and radiation may harm microorganisms, so it’s probably better to make your sourdough away from the harsh radiation of space, but my thinking was a sourdough the size of Saturn!
Careful with storing the vinegar in canning jars for long periods. I had a pint jar at my work cubicle during covid and when I got back to the office, the vinegar had eaten away at the lid and my finger went right through the top.
Thanks for the video! Great work.
Awesome video! The raisin vinegar is one of my favorites. I’ve also done a black raspberry vinegar that is delicious.
5th COVID lockdown:
Started the evening with a curiosity search about how vinegar is made. Ended the evening with a jar of dried currants submerged in water.
Yep, checks out.
Just realised my jar of currants is now 4 weeks old. Time flies when you're in lockdown. It's just starting to smell vinegary and fizzing. Hope I don't survive covid just die by dodgy homemade vinegar!
@@Liliarthan how was it?
With fresh fruit it's equal weight fruit to brown sugar.(hydroscopic) The sugar acts on fresh fruit by absorbing the water in fruit. (Reduce lingering bacteria besides lacto & acetic) The liquid from this stage of fermentation can be used on your garden plants. The spent solids added to distilled water can then be converted to vinegars.
I know this is an old video. BUT PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD take the pH at the start. pH should be at or lower than 4.6 pH. This will stop mold and the scary botulism monster. You can add something acidic like citrus juice, citric acid, ect. (bonus points if is raw vinegar or sour tasting kombucha because it will have a culture of the bacteria that turns alcohol to acetic acid)
Just use regular ph strips??
@@Chefmeiafood safe ones--look for beer or cheese making ones
You are absolutely awesome! I love to experiment and you just got me 1000,000 times more inspired. Thank you ! ❤
I made a massive batch of apple vinegar several years ago with the scraps from a huge apple harvest that I canned. The fermentation went great, but I was so disappointed with the end product I jarred it up and set it in the back of my pantry for at least a year. Hence it was forgotten until my mom was digging around in my pantry, and found it. She took it, and had it for about a year before she opened it, and it was AMAZING stuff. So much better than day one, and now I feel like a fool for giving it to her 😂. We're planning another big apple canning project, and I imagine a lot more than scraps will go to vinegar this year!
5:40 like u said, first it need to be converted to alcohol. To get alcohol, u Cannot expose them to air, hence the failure. u need proper air-lock. Once converted to alcohol, then u can use this cloth /paper cover. Additional tips, alcohol percentage is related to amount of sugar used.
Exactly what I was thinking my friend.
Same thinking here, essential for alcohol and other ferments. And air-locks are cheap and easy to use.
I recently made my first naturally fermented soda drinks, using pineapple and combinations with other fruit. After taking out most of the liquid of the one which was pineapple and my homemade elderberry starter, I left some of the liquid in the jar together with the piece of pineapple and left it uncovered on the counter for days. I was about to throw it out when I discovered it had turned into THE most fragrant vinegar!
Yeah this is incredibly helpful and simplified
Love from Chicago ❤ I thought i needed special lids for fermentation ❤ Glad I found your channel ❤
Your last drink, add some peeled ginger and fresh water, chill 24 hours. It is 1800s haymakers punch.
Great video, I'm gonna make some fruit vinegars now!
Outstanding! Cheers from Tulua, Colombia 🇨🇴
I see lotsssss of earthenware jars. Are we getting a miso, doenjang, gochujang, soy sauce, or other fermented Asian product soon? :D
Emaline L. I’m hoping for sake
@@brettjc0483 oooo that would be cool :) I wanna see if he does fermented glutinous rice too! (Which isn't exactly sake, used more for Chinese cooking and desserts)
Emaline L. Sounds tasty
@@brettjc0483 it is!if you have a ranch 99 or a local asian supermarket near you, see if you can find it! It's usually sold in glass jars with the rice and rice wine it's in :)
Emaline L. I’ll have to try it!
Always remember: great vinegar starts with great wine. Learn to make good fruit wine, and the vinegar will have a solid base to work with.
is fruit wine what he made before starting the vinegar process?
If you are interested by fermentation. There is a wonderful book there called 'The Art of fermentation' by Sandor Ellix Katz.
Been living with a beekeeper for years - can safely say, do NOT use boiling water over honey, it kills the good stuff (yeah you know what i'm talking about) in honey
Is hot water (say, 70 degrees Celsius) okay, or what's the limit? Super interested to know!
This video reminded me that I have a very old (but unopened) bag of chopped dates in my cupboard. I think I'll try to make vinegar out of it. I even have a partial sachet of brewer's yeast to get the party (alcohol fermentation) started quicker. I'll definitely be using an airlock until the alcohol fermentation finishes (to hopefully avoid infection).
I'm thinking it would be cool to try this with herbs, maybe lavender or rosemary or even garlic?? Or culinary flowers like rose and hibiscus.
Yes, in trindad we use hibiscus to make wine.
Yes, but you need to add 1/2 cup of sugar for every liter of water
going to have to give this a go at some point. some of the things I thought would try with:
coconut vinegar, pineapple vinegar, tomato vinegar (for pasta sauces specifically), and go for some certain blends of fruits.
also thought: would there be a way to make a truffle vinegar? (it is a fungus and has low sugar content, but maybe by adding some sort of external sugar source (honeycomb?) could add just enough sugars to let it ferment.)
Nice idea with the truffle vinegar... I'd try making a broth with dried truffels, add some sugar as you said, and, when it's cooled down, a splash of beer for the yeast. Definitely worth a try.
Please keep us up to date. Would be interesting to know how you go.
I like that you made it all without adding extra sugar. Thats how I plan to make it.
Dude, you know what you're doing. Thanks for the channel.
The sweeter fruit vinegars are great on vanilla ice cream, trust me :)
One of my teachers told me about a time when he was in (I think) a culinary class put balsamic that was she's for a really long time on ice cream. He said it was just like syrup it was so thick
That white mold is not mold but Kahm Yeast.
Yeast will form as a film. Mold will form as small dots with each for growing.
Yeast is safe, mold may not be, however mild will not survive under a PH of 4.5
To make wine, we want to keep the air out, vinegar needs O2
When you make fruit wines you need a lot of fruit chopped small. You should research wine making. You'll get a better product. Then you should look into how to make vinegar. There are online resources you might find useful.
what I find weird is that he had a Huge acetobater culture behind him (the kombucha SCOBY) and decide not to use it. We call it "the mother of vinegar"(rough translation) here. If he just took some of those slime disks, chopped it and put it in the fruit jars, the fermentation would go way smoother. Maybe adding some dry yeast would make it even better, but regular kombucha already have plenty bread yeast.
Now we made vinegar how do you keep them going. Did any of them create a mother?
I made once a plum vinegar... believe me, it is the best vinegare for marinating meat
Been making my own alcohol (wine and mead) for a few years now
Never had a batch turn into vinegar thankfully, but the science behind it is really interesting! Might have to give it a try one day once I have some "sacrificial" batches
Edit: No wonder it hasn't turned into vinegar 🤣 all my alcohol ends up being 14-16% abv
Question though: As far as the stir every day thing to prevent mold, would a weight (like you might use for sauerkraut or kimchi) to hold the fruit below the surface be of aid in that instance? In theory you wouldnt need to stir or worry about mold because it would be submerged
I've made vinegar with summer of my extra homemade hard cider. I didn't stir it, just left it alone for a month or so, and it was fine - no mold, just a mild vinegar. This makes me think you might be right about the fruit.
I haven't tried any vinegar experiments as of yet but I did try to make some berry wine early in the summer and despite washing the fruit (it had been frozen too after picking) I somehow still ended up with mold on top despite the yeast, sadly had to toss the entire thing but I think it lends credit to the theory :D next time I'm definitely using a weight to submerge it
Pro home cooks: This was a very interesting tutorial; thank you.
I do have a few of questions: Why did you not weigh your fruit down in the jars, so that none of it was above the waterline? Why did you choose an aerobic instead of an anaerobic fermentation for the first stage of the process? And why did you choose to bottle your finished product in such large bottles relative to the amount of product that you had to store? In terms of your dried fruit versus fresh fruit starters, can you comment on the relative quantity of each that you used, relative to the jars, please?
My questions are in earnest, and not intended as passive aggressive criticism. Since I had so many questions, I figure it might be better to make that clear at the outset; and I am willing to put forward the thought processes behind my inquiries if you ask.
I had the same questions. If fact, I didn't realize people did both of the fermentations together. I think the answer to most of these questions is that he is making small amounts for home use. Still, all that extra air in the jars made me nervous, but it didn't seem to be a problem.
Wow never knew how it was made but will try. I have a lot of idea's now, great video❤
dont rasins have a compound that helps stave off molds? i know some cultures add rasins and things to help with a safe fermentation.
also isn't the first portion of converting the fresh fruits sugars into alcohol anerobic? so you need to cover it for the first round then once you reach your alcohol content then you remove the lid and let oxygen get in there
They add sulphite to the raisins to protect them from molds and yeasts.
This is a really good video, you really hit the goldilocks zone between entertaining and educational. Thank you!
Picked eggs with a new twist, sweet
Fun fact: the word “vinegar” comes from Latin. It’s made up of “vinum”, wine, and “acer”, sour. It’s explained it perfectly: sour wine.
Very informative, Thanks!
I Wonder what you did with the fermented dried fruits 🤔
Not only a great chef, but an great artist
damn this channel keep blowing me away!
*FINALLY!* Another use for my 'SCOBY MOTEL'! (to speed things up)
I've got apples going right now, but the next trip to the store I'll be in the bulk food area buying dried fruit. *THANKS!*
Tried raisin vinegar...BEST thing I have tasted in a long time...5yr old grandson loves it!!!!
Which brand ?
Couple quick questions.
1) Did you just leave it out in room temperature? What if it's summer 90+ degrees is that too hot?
2) How long should this last in the pantry? Is it like wine in that it will last essentially forever and get better over time?
3) Did you use the fruit after making the vinegar for anything? Can you use it for anything?
4) Do you know if dried fruit powders will work?
The video i didn't know i needed
My dude, you have a very beautiful kitchen. My dad loved big kitchens.
I have a few questions:
1. I keep seeing online that you need a vinegar mother in order to create vinegar. What is the difference between this method and the ones where you need a vinegar mother?
2. Can you use the old batches to make new batches of vinegar or do you need to start the process from scratch again, when making a new batch?
I make vinagar each year, I don't stir it, the white substance is not bad it's actually mother vinegar scoby which is fine you can remove it when it's ready but you need to make sure scoby is white firm and without a bad smell when it's ready ,the most important thing is the mixture of fruit and water should be sweet if not you should add less water or add sugar, you can blend it like a smoothie, for better result I add a pinch of yeast ,oxygen is important so a cloth is better to cover it
I once tried to make mango wine. I was in this wine making zone. Grapes, beetroot, ginger, ginger-beetroot, and mango. Other than the mango, all the others turned out well. Grape and ginger-beetroot were the best. I'll try mango vinegar soon...
I loved the way you created this video. Look forward to more.
Many people have posted very interesting comments. I have a feeling that with dried fruits you may have achieved a very different sugar concentration. If you didn't account for the muh higher sugar content of dried fruit and used the same ratio for fresh and dried, then fresh fruits may have led to lower alcohol content (
Acetic acid! ☺️ There is no such thing as acidic acid. Well, I guess all acids are acidic.
Thank you! I was ready to lose my shit!
"acidic acid" 😂
Thanks for the tips Brad! 👍