 Vinegars have been made and used by people for thousands of years to flavor food. In fact, traces of vinegars have been found in Egyptian urns dating back to 3000 BC. Vinegars are made by adding a bacteria called acetobacter aceti to diluted wine, ale, or fermented fruits or grains. This creates acetic acid, which gives the liquid a sour flavor. The vinegar we buy in the store is acetic acid in water, ranging from 4% to 6% acid. Hi, I'm Roxy Dinstall of the Cooperative Extension Service University of Alaska Fairbanks. Today we are demonstrating how to make flavored vinegars using herbs, fruits, spices, and fruit juice. This is a simple process that makes for a high quality product that can add variety to your family's meals. Research on food preservation is an ongoing process. The United States Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service continuously apply new research findings to their recommendations for food preservation techniques. The guidelines in this module may be revised as additional knowledge is gained that may increase the margin of safety or improve the quality of home-preserved foods. Consult your local Cooperative Extension Office annually for updated information. To make flavored vinegar, you'll need glass bowls or plastic containers, measuring cups and spoons, cheesecloth for straining the vinegar, jars with two-piece lids like these, and a boiling water canner. Supplies include herbs like our fresh herbs that we have growing over here. We have cilantro and parsley. We're going to need vinegars, fruit juices, spices such as these cinnamon sticks, and fruit. Vinegars to be flavored come in a wide variety of types based on what the vinegars are made from and how they are made. The product you're making will determine the type of vinegar used as the foundation. White distilled vinegar is typically stronger and sharper than other vinegars and is used in pickling. They usually contain about 5% acetic acid. Apple cider vinegar is made from cider or apple juice and has a characteristic brownish yellow color. Balsamic vinegar is an aromatic age type of vinegar made from the concentrated juice of white grapes. It's very dark brown in color and has fine flavors developed from years of aging. Rice vinegar is made of rice and is most popular in East and Southeast Asia. It comes in white, which is really kind of a light yellow color. It also comes in red and black. Wine vinegar is made from red or white wine and is used in Mediterranean countries. Wine vinegar has a lower acidity than white or cider vinegars. To make flavored vinegars, we recommend using either rice or white wine vinegar as the foundation. Distilled white vinegar can be successfully made into flavored vinegars but may be a bit stronger, sometimes overwhelming the delicate flavors of the herbs. By the same token, cider vinegar has a more distinctive flavor and color that may not be as attractive with some herb combinations. Today we're going to demonstrate how to make three different types of flavored vinegars. A simple herb vinegar, a vinegar made with fresh fruit and herbs, and a vinegar made with fruit juice. Begin the preparation with clean equipment and supplies. Equipment must be clean to avoid contaminating the vinegar. Make sure all bowls, jars, and measuring equipment are scrupulously clean. If using a jar for the steeping, sterilize the jars by heating and boiling water for 10 minutes. A simple herb vinegar can be easily made by just putting some sprigs of herbs in a jar and pouring warm vinegar over them. The temperature of the vinegar will be just below boiling, about 190 degrees. Use three or four sprigs per two cups of vinegar. I've washed and dried my herb. I'm going to put it in the jar, place it in the bottom of my jar. Three or four sprigs, but again it depends on how strong the flavor of those herbs are. I have my vinegar. It is hot, just about boiling, so it will steep rather quickly. I'm going to pour it right over the top. I've chosen to use a white wine vinegar. Turn my stove off. I'm going to put the lid on it and let it steep for three to four weeks. You can also use dried herbs. In that case, we're going to use three tablespoons of dried herbs per pint. Out here I have some dill and I have some red cracked pepper that would make wonderful vinegars. At the end of the three weeks, we're going to strain the vinegar through a cheesecloth and discard the herbs. They do begin to look a little rough after a while. When the herb vinegar is finished, it may be hot water canned for five minutes and sterilized jars with two-piece lids. For more information on boiling water canners, refer to the Canning Basics DVD, available through the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. You may also keep the vinegar tightly covered in the refrigerator until all the vinegar is used. Now I have some vinegars up here that I've made. The first one is a purple basil vinegar. As you can see, I just took the purple basil and poured the warm vinegar over it. It has a beautiful color after steeping. Of course, after about three weeks, we did pull out all the old herbs. I also have a sage vinegar and it's very attractive as well. It was made with dried herbs. It has a wonderful flavor. Now the third one is one that is my personal favorite and I used edible flowers. Edible flowers can be used to flavor vinegars and a good example is used to blossoms from nasturtiums, chives or any other edible flowers. Simply fill the bottle with blossoms and pour the vinegar over the top. This is a vinegar I made last summer from nasturtiums. Note the beautiful color and it has a great peppery flavor from the blossoms. Next, let's make a blueberry basil vinegar that is featured in Cooperative Extension Service publication using Alaska's Wild Berry and other wild products. This is a simple vinegar just like the one I just made, but it has the addition of blueberries. The ingredients are four cups of fresh or frozen blueberries, four cups of white wine vinegar, the zest of one lemon and one cup of fresh basil, loosely packed. First thing we're going to do is combine our blueberries, one cup of the white wine vinegar and we're going to lightly crush the blueberries. Bruising the fruit incorporates the flavor into the vinegar much more quickly. And as you can see, I've used frozen blueberries and there's a lot of juice that's already loose. Now we're going to add the remaining three cups of vinegar, stir it up and then I want to crush my basil and drop it in. Crushing releases all of those wonderful aromatic oils so they'll be quickly incorporated into the flavor of our vinegar. Oh man, that stuff smells great. Just a picture of summertime. A lot of basil, get the last of that out of there. Crush it up. Aromatic oils are what give herbs their very unique flavor. Now we're going to stir it in and the only thing left is our lemon zest and we're going to add that in. Oh gosh, it smells great. Now we're going to cover the bowl with wax paper or plastic wrap. I'm going to secure it. Don't get any added mold spores in there. So we're going to allow the vinegar to steep in a cool dark place for four weeks, stirring every two to three days. I'm going to set that one aside and take you over here where we're going to talk about one that I've already got finished. This is the same vinegar. It's set for four weeks and it's now ready to finish. So I've strained it through cheesecloth to get rid of those old herbs and the extra blueberries. Put it in a small pot on top of the stove and I've brought it to a simmer. Now I have my canning funnel in here. You can see it's hotter it is, the quicker it'll can. I'm going to fill up my jars within a half an inch of the top. This smells really good. Of course I love the smell of blueberries in the summertime and this really smells good. Let's see, I haven't got quite enough in there. Sometimes it's kind of a fool you when you get that canning funnel in there, exactly how much is in that jar. I'm going to put our lid on and it's all ready to process for ten minutes in the boiling water canner. Now after processing a cooling, the vinegars are ready to be put in your pantry. Now I'll be back in a little while when I have all these vinegars processed and finished. The third vinegar we're going to prepare today is Lobush cranberry orange vinegar using Alaska Lobush cranberry juice. Lobush cranberries are also called lingonberries. I've taken one cup of cranberry juice that I canned last summer and I'm going to put with it one cup of sugar. I'm going to mix it together until it dissolves. Now the cranberry juice that I had, I canned it last summer and the recommendations for canning cranberry juice are given in the Alaska Wild Berry Book. It's always nice to have these wonderful products that you can use later that you prepared last summer. So we're going to simmer the juice until the sugar is dissolved. You can hear that grating sound. That tells me that my sugar is not dissolved yet. So while I'm waiting for it to dissolve, I'm going to prepare my spices. I have a couple of cinnamon sticks and some cloves. I'm going to pull the ends up and tie this together. Now the reason I'm putting them in a spice bag is that the cheesecloth is so porous that it allows the flavors to come right out of there but yet I don't have to be fishing out all those little pieces of cloves later. So they're all ready. My cranberries are ready and my white wine vinegar is ready. So let's see how our juice is doing. Well, it's beginning to dissolve and you can still hear that little bit of gradiness that tells us it's kind of like sand in the bottom. I always say you can always look for the milky look but I can always hear the sugar whether the sugar is dissolved or not. Okay, and you can hear how all of a sudden there's just a little bit of gradiness, not much. It's important to go ahead and dissolve that sugar so that it'll mix easier when we put the other stuff with it. Okay, hear that? That tells us it's all ready. Okay, we're going to add our cranberries, low-wish cranberries, our spice bag, and three cups of white wine vinegar. Now we're going to bring it back up to a boil and once it gets to a boil we're going to allow it to simmer for at least ten minutes. Now at the end of that ten minute period we're going to remove the spice bag, cut a thin slice of orange and put it in the bottom of each hot jar and ladle the vinegar over the top. It'll be processed in a boiling water bath canner for at least ten minutes. I'm sorry, let me say that again. It has to be processed for ten minutes in a boiling water canner. Now that we've demonstrated three different types of flavored vinegars, we hope you'll enjoy using these and trying them at home. It takes at least ten days for most flavors to develop and about three to four weeks for the greatest flavor to be extracted. Crushing herbs and bruising fruit hastens the flavoring process. Be sure to taste to check the product development. Place a few drops on a piece of bread and taste to evaluate the flavoring. If it's too weak, leave it to steep a little longer. If the flavor is too strong, it can be diluted with more of the foundation vinegar. I'm going to finish this vinegar up, needs to simmer just a little longer. I'm going to can it and then we'll be back to talk about storage. Because vinegars are highly acidic, mold is one of the few problems that can occur. Make sure all of your equipment is spotlessly clean before starting and keep the vinegar covered during the steeping period to protect from mold spores entering the product. If mold occurs in the vinegar, discard it as it is unsafe to use. The mold may show up as a sliminess. These products have been processed in a boiling water canner and the seals have been checked, labeled with the product, the processing time and the date. If vinegars are properly prepared and bottled, they're good for three months when stored in a cool place and six to eight months if stored in the refrigerator. If the flavored vinegar ever has mold on it or in it or signs of fermentation such as bubbling, cloudiness or sliminess, throw it away without using any of the vinegar for any purpose. Vinegars can be combined with a small amount of oil and used as a salad dressing, used in marinades and even combined with club soda for a refreshing beverage. Experiment with your favorite herbs and fruits to develop your own recipes.