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The Preparation of Marketable Vinegar

January 12th, 2020

It is unnecessary to point out that low-grade fruit may often be used to advantage in the preparation of vinegar.  This has always been true in the case of apples and may be true with other fruit, especially grapes.  The use of grapes for wine making is an outlet which in now to be denied, and one alternative is the manufacture of vinegar from such grapes as are undesirable for eating.  The juice makes a very excellent vinegar, thought be some to be the superior to apple-cider vinegar.

VARIETIES OF VINEGAR

Vinegar may be prepared from any fruit juice or any other liquid containing sugar, or from a solution of alcohol.  The New York State law recognizes the following: apple vinegar or cider vinegar; wine vinegar or grape vinegar; malt vinegar; from in fusions of barley malt; glucose vinegar, from solutions for corn sugar or glucose; spirit vinegar or distilled vinegar, from dilute alcohol.  Vinegars have also been prepared from low-grade honey, waste oranges and peaches, and maple skimmings.  Exactly the same processes go on, no matter what the material from which the vinegar is made.  This publication is devoted to the preparation of vinegar from apple juice but whenever other fruit juices or sugar solutions are employed, similar rule and conditions prevail.

ACID IN VINEGAR

Whatever the fruit juice or liquid used in the preparation of vinegar, the acid or sourness is derived from the sugar in the material; other constituents in the juices contribute to the characteristic flavors, but from the sugar alone is acid eventually produced.

Two distinct steps are recognized and are necessary in the change fro sugar to acid.  These steps do not go hand in hand; on the contrary, it is important that the first be completed before the second begins.  In the first place small microscopic organisms called yeasts attack sugar, changing it to alcohol; in the second step, bacteria act on the alcohol changing it to acetic acid.

The sourness of the finished product and its power as a preservative depends upon the percentage of acetic acid obtained.  Vinegar of less than 4 per cent acetic acid is unsatisfactory.  It is also desirable that the product be of good flavor.  High acidity and excellence in flavor cannot be obtained unless the producer use intelligence at all stages,

from the selection of the fruit from which the juice is to be pressed until the vinegar is finally ready for use.  The process itself is simple so that no one need fear he is undertaking a complicated piece of work.  However, the few things that are necessary to be done must be done well.

MISTAKES IN VINEGAR MAKING

The usual methods of preparing vinegar on the farm in most cases will not give a product of marketable value and vinegar may even turn out to be so weak and of such poor quality that it is valueless for use at home in the preservation of vegetables.  Furthermore, the methods are sometimes wasteful.  A good cider capable of producing high-grade vinegar, may thru carelessness become transformed in such a way that it can never become vinegar.  Also there is great waste of time.  Altho a year may be required for the vinegar transformation, if some attention be given to the work a full-strength vinegar can be finished in a few months.  In many farm cellars there are barrels of vinegar more that two years old, which have not yet come up to full strength, and which indeed, may never reach 4 per cent acidity.

Usually a farmer places his fresh sweet cider in an old vinegar barrel and rolls it into the cellar.  He then expects that, without giving it further attention he will have good vinegar next year.  There is but little chance that his expectations will be realized.

It has been the custom on some farms to add low-grad molasses to the barrels of sweet cider and set them in the sun during mild weather in a warm room in winter.  This almost always giver vinegar of the required strength, but the use of molasses is not alone expensive but also unnecessary since equally good results may be obtained by careful methods.

From The Preparation of Marketable Vinegar by Frank E. Rice – Cornell Extension Bulletin #40, April 1920 published by the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 

Click here to read Making Apple Cider Vinegar

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Category: Wine, Cordials, & Spirits

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By

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LONDON

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———-

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St.Helen’s on the Thames, photo by Momit

 

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Mudlarks of London

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Why Beauty Matters – Sir Roger Scruton

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Click here for another site on which to view this video.

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Classic Restoration of a Spring Tied Upholstered Chair

?

This video by AT Restoration is the best hands on video I have run across on the basics of classic upholstery. Watch a master at work. Simply amazing.

Tools:

Round needles: https://amzn.to/2S9IhrP Double pointed hand needle: https://amzn.to/3bDmWPp Hand tools: https://amzn.to/2Rytirc Staple gun (for beginner): https://amzn.to/2JZs3x1 Compressor [...] Read more →

Here’s Many a Year to You

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Country Cabbage and Pea Soup

Add the following ingredients to a four or six quart crock pot, salt & pepper to taste keeping in mind that salt pork is just that, cover with water and cook on high till it boils, then cut back to low for four or five hours. A slow cooker works well, I [...] Read more →

The Charge of the Light Brigade

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English Fig Wine

Take the large blue figs when pretty ripe, and steep them in white wine, having made some slits in them, that they may swell and gather in the substance of the wine.

Then slice some other figs and let them simmer over a fire in water until they are reduced [...] Read more →

Furniture Polishing Cream

Furniture Polishing Cream.

Animal oil soap…………………….1 onuce Solution of potassium hydroxide…. .5 ounces Beeswax……………………………1 pound Oil of turpentine…………………..3 pints Water, enough to make……………..5 pints

Dissolve the soap in the lye with the aid of heat; add this solution all at once to the warm solution of the wax in the oil. Beat [...] Read more →

Life Among the Thugee

The existence of large bodies of men having no other means of subsistence than those afforded by plunder, is, in all countries, too common to excite surprise; and, unhappily, organized bands of assassins are not peculiar to India! The associations of murderers known by the name of Thugs present, however, [...] Read more →

A Conversation between H.F. Leonard and K. Higashi

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Proper Book Handling and Cleaning

Book Conservators, Mitchell Building, State Library of New South Wales, 29.10.1943, Pix Magazine

The following is taken verbatim from a document that appeared several years ago in the Maine State Archives. It seems to have been removed from their website. I happened to have made a physical copy of it at the [...] Read more →

Tuna Record

TROF. C. F. HOLDFER AND HIS 183LBS. TUNA, WITH BOATMAN JIM GARDNER.

July 2, 1898. Forest and Stream Pg. 11

The Tuna Record.

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Slaughter in Bombay

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BOMBAY. MUSULMAN FANATICISM.

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The Charge of the Light Brigade

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Pickled Eels

Vintage woodcut illustration of a Eel

 

This dish is a favorite in Northern Europe, from the British Isles to Sweden.

Clean and skin the eels and cut them into pieces about 3/4-inch thick. Wash and drain the pieces, then dredge in fine salt and allow to stand from 30 [...] Read more →

Arsenic and Old Lace

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A Crock of Squirrel

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4 young squirrels – quartered Salt & Pepper 1 large bunch of fresh coriander 2 large cloves of garlic 2 tbsp. salted sweet cream cow butter ¼ cup of brandy 1 tbsp. turbinado sugar 6 fresh apricots 4 strips of bacon 1 large package of Monterrey [...] Read more →

A General Process for Making Wine

A General Process for Making Wine.

Gathering the Fruit Picking the Fruit Bruising the Fruit Vatting the Fruit Vinous Fermentation Drawing the Must Pressing the Must Casking the Must Spirituous Fermentation Racking the Wine Bottling and Corking the Wine Drinking the Wine

GATHERING THE FRUIT.

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How to Make Money – Insurance

Life insurance certificate issued by the Yorkshire Fire & Life Insurance Company to Samuel Holt, Liverpool, England, 1851. On display at the British Museum in London. Donated by the ifs School of Finance. Photo by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)

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Naval Stores – Distilling Turpentine

Chipping a Turpentine Tree

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Fly Casting Instructions

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Peach Brandy

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The Age of Chivalry

KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS

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King James Bible – Knights Templar Edition

Full Cover, rear, spine, and front

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Mortlake Tapestries of Chatsworth

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Click here to learn more about the Mortlake Tapestries of Chatsworth

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Some Notes on American Ship Worms

July 9, 1898. Forest and Stream Pg. 25

Some Notes on American Ship-Worms.

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The Crime of the Congo by Arthur Conan Doyle

 

Man looks at severed hand and foot….for refusing to climb a tree to cut rubber for King Leopold

Click here to read The Crime of the Congo by Arthur Conan Doyle

Victim of King Leopold of Belgium

Click on the link below for faster download.

The [...] Read more →

Books of Use to the International Art Collector

Hebborn Piranesi

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Foie gras with Sauternes, Photo by Laurent Espitallier

As an Appetizer

Pale dry Sherry, with or without bitters, chilled or not. Plain or mixed Vermouth, with or without bitters. A dry cocktail.

With Oysters, Clams or Caviar

A dry flinty wine such as Chablis, Moselle, Champagne. Home Top of [...] Read more →

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Reprint from the Royal Collection Trust Website

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Horn Measurement

Jul. 23, 1898 Forest and Stream, Pg. 65

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Wine Making

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Texas Tarpon

Early Texas photo of Tarpon catch – Not necessarily the one mentioned below…

July 2, 1898. Forest and Stream Pg.10

Texas Tarpon.

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The Fowling Piece – Part I

THE FOWLING PIECE, from the Shooter’s Guide by B. Thomas – 1811.

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44 Berkeley Square

The Clermont Club

Reprint from London Bisnow/UK

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Beef Jerky

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Preparation.

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Target Practice

Nov. 12, 1898 Forest and Stream Pg. 396

The Veterans to the Front.

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The following recipes form the most popular items in a nine-course dinner program:

BIRD’S NEST SOUP

Soak one pound bird’s nest in cold water overnight. Drain the cold water and cook in boiling water. Drain again. Do this twice. Clean the bird’s nest. Be sure [...] Read more →

The First Christian Man Cremated in America

Laurens’ portrait as painted during his time spent imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was kept for over a year after being captured at sea while serving as the United States minister to the Netherlands during the Revolutionary War.

The first Christian white man to be cremated in America was [...] Read more →

The Flying Saucers are Real by Donald Keyhoe

It was a strange assignment. I picked up the telegram from desk and read it a third time.

NEW YORK, N.Y., MAY 9, 1949

HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING FLYING SAUCER MYSTERY. FIRST TIP HINTED GIGANTIC HOAX TO COVER UP OFFICIAL SECRET. BELIEVE IT MAY HAVE BEEN PLANTED TO HIDE [...] Read more →

The Basics of Painting in the Building Trade

PAINTER-WORK, in the building trade. When work is painted one or both of two distinct ends is achieved, namely the preservation and the coloration of the material painted. The compounds used for painting—taking the word as meaning a thin protective or decorative coat—are very numerous, including oil-paint of many kinds, distemper, whitewash, [...] Read more →