SPECIAL VINEGARS Aromatic Vinegar.—This is a mix ture or compound of strong acetic acid or ordinary vinegar with vari ous essential oils. It is a volatile and powerful perfume having a pungent odor and is snuffed in the nostrils as a stimulant in languor, faintness, ner vous debility, etc.
To produce the best qualities of aromatic vinegar, a glacial or crystal lizable acetic acid is combined with various essential oils at the rate of 6 drops, more or less, of the oils of clove, lavender, rosemary, calamus, etc., to 1 ounce of glacial acetic acid.
Aromatic vinegar must be kept tightly corked. For use it may be dropped on a sponge or snuffed from a vinaigrette. It may also be used as a caustic for warts, corns, and other callouses. But on account of its caustic properties it must be care fully kept from clothing and the skin. Treat accidental burns with cooking soda.
Imitation of Aromatic Vinegar.— Common vinegar may be boiled down with very gentle heat until 90 per cent to 95 per cent of its bulk has been lost by evaporation, and the remainder will be almost pure acetic acid. To this the essential oils may be added in the above proportions, and a fairly good grade of aromatic vinegar obtained.
Fruit Vinegars.— The juices of most ordinary fruits, as raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and the like, contain sufficient sugar to ferment and produce an alcoholic liquor from which vinegar can be made, either with or without the addition of sugar sirup or molasses.
To make vinegar from fruits, ex tract the juice by boiling the fruit with about its own quantity of water. Squeeze out the juice through several thicknesses of cheese cloth. This may be done by inserting sticks at either end and twisting them. To each gal lon of fruit juice add about a quar ter pint of good yeast, and let stand in an open jug or jar with the cover slightly tilted at a temperature of 70° or 80° F.
Or the boiled fruit juice may be allowed to stand for two or three days, to ferment before straining. And the yeast may be added after the fermented liquor has been freed from the fruit pulp.
Vinegar made from fruit juices is of better quality and keeps better than that made from malt liquors.
These juices are often prepared in much the same manner before they are fully turned into vinegar and used as cooling drinks. And ordi nary vinegar 'is frequently flavored with fruit juices for table use. The following include miscellaneous rec ipes of these kinds: Raspberry Vinegar.—Pick over pints of fresh raspberries. Place them in an earthenware jar or jug, and pour over them 3 pints of pure vine gar. After twenty-four hours strain out the liquor, discard the fruit pulp, clean the jar, place in it pints of fresh raspberries, and pour the liquor over them. After another twenty-four hours repeat the process for the third time, thus using, all told, 4i pints of fresh raspberries. Decant the clear liquor through two or three thicknesses of cheese cloth, without squeezing, into a double boiler of graniteware, porcelain, or tin. But do not use a. graniteware kettle that is chipped so as to expose the iron. Stir in until dissolved 1 pound of crushed loaf sugar for each pint of liquor. Boil for one hour, taking off the scum with a skimmer as fast as it appears. Bottle, cork, and seal. Gooseberry Vinegar.—Mash in a suitable vessel half a bushel of ripe gooseberries. Using for this purpose the end of a stick of hard wood. Add 6 gallons of lukewarm rain wa ter, and let stand twenty-four hours. Strain through several thicknesses of cheese cloth, stir in 12 pounds of coarse brown sugar, and pour the whole into a 9-gallon cask, filling it up with warm rain water. Let stand three or four days, stirring several times a day to dissolve the sugar, which settles at the bottom. Head up the cask, pack two or three thick nesses of cheese cloth over the bung hole, and place the cask in a warm place, near the kitchen stove indoors, but not in the sun. It will be turned into vinegar in from nine to twelve months. It may then be strained and bottled for use. When so Made gooseberry vinegar is superior to the. best white-wine vinegar, and will make a better quality of pickles than the most expensive vinegar of commerce, preserving the ingredients better, whereas the cost is next to nothing.