Making Flavoured Vinegars for Salad Dressings

A Quiet Craft Worth Reviving

There is a particular pleasure in opening a cupboard and finding a row of bottles you made yourself: deep ruby vinegar that smells of raspberries, a pale golden one flecked with tarragon, another with a curl of lemon peel suspended inside. Flavoured vinegars are one of the simplest things to make in a kitchen, and one of the most useful. They lift a plain bowl of leaves into something memorable, they tenderise a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, and they turn a glut of herbs or a punnet of soft fruit into something that will still be good in a year's time.

They also make lovely gifts. A couple of well-chosen bottles with a handwritten label cost very little, and they say far more than a supermarket hamper. The method is forgiving, the equipment is already in your cupboard, and the only real ingredient is patience — roughly a fortnight of it.

Choose Your Vinegar Base First

The vinegar you pour in matters as much as what you steep in it. Look for something with around 5–6% acidity, which is enough to keep the infusion stable and to pickle safely.

• Cider vinegar — fruity and slightly sweet, the best partner for berries, apples and woody herbs such as rosemary.
• White wine vinegar — clean and sharp, ideal for delicate herbs, citrus peel, chive flowers and fennel.
• Red wine vinegar — robust and winey, good with garlic, thyme, black pepper and dried chillies.
• Rice vinegar — mild and gentle, excellent with ginger, lemongrass and bird's eye chilli for Asian-inspired dressings.
• Malt vinegar — too loud for most infusions, though it is magnificent with shallots and chillies for pickling.

Avoid distilled spirit vinegar, which is harsh and unforgiving. If you can, buy a vinegar you would be happy to taste from a spoon; the flavour you start with is the flavour you finish with.

Three Combinations That Always Work

Start with one from each family and you will quickly learn what you like. Use a clean 500ml jar for each.

• Tarragon or dill vinegar: 250ml white wine vinegar with three tablespoons of freshly picked leaves, lightly bruised between your fingers.
• Raspberry or blackberry vinegar: 250ml cider vinegar with 150g of fruit, crushed just enough to break the skins.
• Lemon or orange vinegar: 250ml white wine vinegar with the pared zest of two lemons or one orange — strips only, no white pith, which turns bitter.

Once you are confident, try garlic and chilli, ginger and lime leaf, or a spoonful of honey with thyme. Keep the combinations simple. Two or three notes sing; six turn muddy.

The Two-Week Steep, Step by Step

Sterilise your jar with boiling water or in a low oven, then let it cool completely. Add your flavourings, pour over the vinegar so everything is submerged, and seal. If your jar has a metal lid, place a square of cling film or baking parchment under it — vinegar will corrode bare metal over a fortnight.

Stand the jar in a cool, dark cupboard and shake it once a day. Warmth speeds things along, so a sunny windowsill will give you a finished vinegar in a week; a cold larder might take three. Begin tasting after seven days. Herbs are usually ready at ten days to two weeks; berries and citrus can go a little longer. Past a month, delicate flavours turn flat and the vinegar grows dull, so do not forget about it.

Straining, Bottling and Storing

Line a sieve with muslin, or use a coffee filter, and strain the vinegar into a jug. Let it drip rather than pressing hard on the solids, which forces sediment through and clouds the bottle. If a pale film forms on a berry vinegar, that is the mother — harmless and a sign of a living vinegar. Strain it off and carry on.

Decant into sterilised bottles with swing-tops or screw caps, again with a plastic-lined seal. Label each with the contents and the date. Stored cool and dark, most flavoured vinegars keep their brightness for six to twelve months, and often longer. A little sediment is normal. Discard any bottle that smells musty, fizzes, or grows a fuzzy mould rather than a smooth film.

Using Them in Dressings, Marinades and Pickling

The classic vinaigrette is three parts good olive oil to one part flavoured vinegar, with a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and, if you like, a little honey. Shake it in a jam jar and taste — adjust the balance rather than following the numbers blindly.

For a marinade, whisk two tablespoons of vinegar with three of oil, a crushed garlic clove and plenty of chopped herbs, then leave chicken thighs or lamb steaks in it for a few hours. For quick pickled red onions, warm 100ml vinegar with 100ml water, a teaspoon each of salt and sugar, pour over thinly sliced onion and leave for half an hour. The same liquid will pickle cucumber ribbons, radishes or fennel.

A spoonful swirled into a pan after roasting vegetables, or drizzled over warm new potatoes with butter and parsley, shows exactly why these bottles are worth the fortnight's wait.