Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Vinegar, Colourless.— To render pickling vinegar colourless, which it should be for some sorts of pickles, stir together one gallon of the best pickling vinegar and six ounces of bone black (animal charcoal) ; let the mixture stand for two or three days, then pour off the clear vinegar. Vinegar, Cucumber.— Take eighteen large cucumbers and six large onions ; slice them thin, and put them into a pan with twelve shallots, one head of garlic, a table-spoonful of salt, the same of ground pepper, and a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper. Add to these two quarts of good vinegar, and let it stand four days ; then strain it through a flannel bag, and bottle it, with twenty peppercorns in each bottle. Vinegar for Salads.— Put into a jar two handfuls of tarragon, haK a handful of cress, the same of chervil and of the young leaves of the pimpernel, and two cloves of garlic ; fill the jar with vinegar, cover it closely, and let it infuse for eight days ; then strain and bottle it. Vinegar, Fruit. — Take pears, apples, or any other juicy fruit, crush them well with a stamper, and put them in a suitable tub. For every two bushels of fiiiit add four gallons of boiling water. Stir well, and set the preparation in a warm place for a week, skimming off impurities whenever fermentation arises. At the end of that time strain the vinegar through strong fine linen, pressing the pulp. Put the juice in a barrel, stir in a pint of yeast, and throw in a piece of bread. Let the cask be quite full ; put the bung in loosely, and throw over it a piece of flannel. Set in a warm place for a month or six weeks, when the vinegar wiU be fit for bottling. Vinegar made with a Vinegar Plant.— Boil half a pound of coarse brown sugar and half a pound of treacle in two gallons of water, stir it well, put it into a large jar, and when it is lukewarm put on it a vinegar plant. Let it stand in a warm place for two months or more, when the liquor will have turned to vinegar. Boil the vinegar, strain it, and bottle for use. Keep it in a cool place. The vinegar plant is a fungus which grows in the liquor in warmth and darkness. If left without the liquor, it will die. A plant may be purchased often at a trifling cost; market people are the most likely to sell it. It wiU form in vinegar casks, and when it is used, a young plant will grow on the old one, whicb can be applied to the same purpose. In country places it is often spoken of as the " mother.'' Vinegar made with a Vinegar Plant (another way). — By means of the vinegar plant an insipid sort of vinegar is sometimes manufactured. The vinegar plant itself may be thus produced : — Take a solution of quarter of a pound of sugar and half a pound of treacle in three quarts of water, simmer it, then pour it into a jar, cover it up, and keep it in a warm place for six weeks. The liquid will become vinegar, and on the top will form a scum-like fungus, which is the vinegar plant. By adding a piece of this to a similar solution, the process of conversion into vinegar will now take place in much less time. During the process the plant thickens by the formation of a new layer on its under surface, and by peeling off this layer and using it in a fresh operation, the plant may be propagated indefinitely. The vinegar plant is a fungus somewhat resembling those known by the name of mould.