Later On

Making my own red-wine vinegar

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1. You have written about something very close to my heart…red wine vinegar. About 25 years ago I became very friendly with a restaurateur who happened to own the longest continuously operated Italian restaurant in the city. I always admired his red wine vinegar which he used in the salads I ate there almost every day of the week.

   As our friendship progressed, one day he presented me with a gift…a small oak barrel in which he had “seeded” part of the “mother” from his own large barrel. The “mother” dated back to 1936 and had belonged to his mentor who brought it over from Italy in 1952, at the same time as he was opening the restaurant.

   He warned me of three things: “One liter out…one liter in” he used to say, i.e. don’t take out too much and then try to flood the mother with too much fresh red wine.

   The second thing: “The better the wine…the better the vinegar”, i.e. don’t use cheap-shit wine to make your vinegar., it will be just as bad as the wine.

   The third thing: “Never fill the barrel more than half-way, the mother needs air to breathe”.

   The barrel sits in my cold room and we continue to take out and replenish one liter at at time. My son loves it so much he’ll pour himself a half-cup of vinegar, pour in some olive oil, and then soak some mozzarella di bufallo in it, for a snack.

   The restaurant is still in operation today, run by Giuseppe’s son. It is called Chez Magnani’s and is a shrine to traditional Italian food in Montreal.

   

   Steve

   19 May 2010 at 10:27 am
2. Now you’ve really gotten me interested. Interesting about filling the container only half-way. That’s noted also in the second link, but without explanation.

   

   LeisureGuy

   19 May 2010 at 10:31 am
3. I started making my own vinegars this winter and have enjoyed the fruits of my labours. If you already make wine, the cost is almost negligible and the flavour is wonderful. I was given 3 one gallon jars from the local school cafeteria and have used these (along with cloth napkins and rubber bands) to make red-wine, white-wine, and cider vinegar in. I started out with some Bragg’s organic cider vinegar and used this to start the red wine vinegar – I used a very little bit but I think because the wine I used was about 15-20 years old it created a mother within 6 days. The other two took several weeks to a month or so. The mother on the other two looked somewhat different from the red-wine disk my original one had. I even have shared my mother with two other friends and they have now created their own vinegars as well!

   This has been a very satisfactory project and we enjoy the vinegar immensely in our salad dressings, etc.

   So easy to do – it teaches patience (that’s my tough part) but the reward is so worth it. Just remember – what you take out, you put back in and feed weekly. Enjoy!

   

   umbrellalady

   21 May 2010 at 8:58 pm

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