Comments on The Green Phone Booth: Sourpuss

Sorry, here's the link... How to Make Vinegar

Good try, but making vinegar from fruit or juice t...

2009-04-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

Good try, but making vinegar from fruit or juice takes two steps. Its easiest if you make it from left over wine. The alcohol is converted directly to acetic acid.

If you use juice or fruit, it has to ferment to alcohol first and then it ferments from alcohol to vinegar. I think you got into trouble because of this. Also, just the cores and seeds of tart apples probably don't have enough sugar to really ferment into a significant alcoholic cider.

If you want to try again, try with wine or hard cider to start with and get a mother of vinegar to be sure you have the right bugs working for you. Either that or innoculate it with an old bottle of vinegar on your shelf which has some stuff floating on the surface (that is the mother).

There are instructions how to do it here... http://www.wine-tastings-guide.com/how-to-make-vinegar.html

Cheers and good luck!

I saved all those cores and peels from the drying ...

2009-02-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

I saved all those cores and peels from the drying process this year and made apple/cranberry jam with them. Actually, I save them every year, in plastic bags in the freezer, but THIS year I actually did something with them!

While we have made run-of-the-mill stuff like sausage, yogurt and cheese, we also tried made our own tofu. It didn't turn out well, and I haven't revisited the process to figure out what I did wrong. We did get tofu, a layer about 1/4 inch thick! If you would like to read about the experience, I wrote about it here: http://yumminessnsues.blogspot.com/2007/05/tofu-anyone.html

That's what happened when I tried to make fruit sc...

2009-01-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

That's what happened when I tried to make fruit scrap vinegar, too. Scared me so it went in the compost.

I bought some apple cider vinegar with "mother" in it but just haven't gotten around to trying to make my own vinegar with it.

My worms go on my crazy list. There are times whe...

2009-01-09T04:42:00.000-08:00

My worms go on my crazy list. There are times when I am rearranging their bin, trying to identify a mold, my children are seeing who can get the longest one,and I take a moment...stop and look out the window and remember I am in the middle of NYC...worm wrangling and feel completely nuts.

Sorry to hear your experiment wasn't quite a succe...

2009-01-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry to hear your experiment wasn't quite a success but great that you tried! I just found this article on how to make vinegar, and there is a tip about using Braggs Apple cider vinegar as a starter culture as, "the vinegar in the culture keeps out the other molds and bacteria until the vinegar bacteria have had a chance to take firm control of the juice."

Good luck if you do give it another go! I might try to make some myself.

In the meantime I'm going to use the vinegar jugs I do buy, to store emergency water.

I figure if the water sits for too long I can use it to water the garden or flush the toilet and just fill the jugs up again, and that way I won't need to buy bottled water!

There was an article about this in yesterday's WaP...

2009-01-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

There was an article about this in yesterday's WaPo Food section - like Jennifer says, apparently you need a "mother" like a sourdough starter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/06/AR2009010600538.html

I also want to make vanilla extract....

Love the title. I've done some pretty crazy thing...

2009-01-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

Love the title. I've done some pretty crazy things in the name of eco though none come to mind right now. Not sure anything as gross as your moldy vinegar. ;-)

I made sour kraut with a similar method, except th...

2009-01-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

I made sour kraut with a similar method, except that I was told to cover it with brine and skim any mold from the top. I did get some stuff that looks a bit like your picture, so I skimmed it off and let the cabbage continue fermenting. After about 4 weeks I had some tasty kraut!

My mom and I made red wine vinegar from left over ...

2009-01-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

My mom and I made red wine vinegar from left over bits of red wine a few years ago. She bought a "mother" which is a starter like a sour dough starter from a local homebrewing store. It was quite easy to make and turned out great!

http://twitter.com/zrecsmom