If you harvest your own fruit-any kind of fruit-you know how many leftover skins, seeds, pits, cooked stuff, raw stuff, and other things are leftover from processing. So much scrap, from so much good fruit. If you're anything like me, you may have wondered if there's anything you can do with it. There is: fruit scrap vinegar.
I first started messing around with fruit scraps in nice restaurants I worked in where we would have all kinds of amazing fruit come in. After the processing, sometimes there would be things leftover, pits, skins, seeds--things I knew had really delicious solutes still hanging out in them, but I didn't know what to do with.
The first thing I started doing was infusing vinegar with spent grape pits and seeds--and it was shocking. The flavor was concentrated, pure and delicious. If you want to know more about that, see my post on fruit-infused vinegar here--it's a great way to use fruit, especially berries.
Step by Step
This is the older, more mature cousin to the infusion recipe. This is an easy, naturally fermented vinegar made from skins, seeds, pits, pulp, and just about anything else you can throw at it. I've made it with frozen fruit, dried, rehydrated fruit, fruit juice and skins. The images below describe the process.
Adding Live Vinegar and Grain Alcohol
The basic recipe is a hybrid of two of my favorites: one from the Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz, and the other by Rene Redzepi in the Noma Guide to Fermentation. The Sandor Katz recipe is the most basic, and it's a great introduction--you just take fruit and sugar water, and let it ferment. It takes a long time, but it works well.
Rene's recipe speeds the fermentation process by adding live vinegar, along with some grain alcohol to increase ABV, ensuring an acidic result, as if there isn't enough sugar in the beginning product you won't have the amount of alcohol you need to get a good, tart, vinegar.
That being said, I made the recipe for years before I started adding a bit of vodka to it, so know that it's optional. There's recipes for both in this post.
What kind of fruit makes the best vinegar?
Berries, grapes and plums from my experience. The sky is really the limit though: pineapples, mango skins with bits of flesh attached, etc. Here's some of my favorites.
Highbush cranberries
Highbush Cranberries make a brilliant red vinegar. For these I always use the scraps leftover from making a cold juice extraction.
Wild Grapes
Like red wine vinegar, a beautiful nearly purple color, this will taste similarly strong and aggressive, but it's made by your own two hands! Use the scraps leftover from wild grapes after making juice.
Wild Blueberries
Wild blueberries make a deep blue vinegar, and will have a flavor comparable to wild grape, with a very subtle blueberry note.
Aronia Berries
The flesh of aronia berries is tannic, so vinegar is a great way to use them as the finished vinegar won't absorb tannins from the fruit.
Dealing with fruit flies in vinegar
Since I've posted this, I've gotten a lot of questions regarding the flies.
If you're starting this with fresh fruit during the growing season you may have to trouble shoot some things. Depending on your location, temperature, and conditions, fruit flies can be a small or large headache. Here's some tips.
- Secure the cheesecloth or lid as securely and tightly as possible. Use more layers of cloth than you think you need-at least 3. A single layer of cheesecloth is too porous to prevent flies from getting into the vinegar.
- If after two weeks you notice fruit flies, strain the solids out trough the finest mesh or cheesecloth you have, then wash the container, pour the liquid back in, cover and continue the fermentation process with a new cheesecloth top.
- Start and keep your vinegar outside to avoid having the flies in areas you frequent.
- We are conditioned to think that insects are problematic and potentially dangerous as they can harbor bacteria, but, in the case of vinegar, a fly or two in the liquid can actually help ensure a strong fermentation process as they are covered in natural yeasts. As the pH of the liquid decreases the flies die.
- Freeze your fruit and start the vinegar in the winter.
- While unappealing, fruit flies will not harm the vinegar or make it unsafe to consume.
How to Use Fruit Vinegar
The finished vinegar of dark fruits can be used anywhere you'd use red wine vinegar in general cooking. I often add sugar or maple syrup to it. Here's a few examples of how I use it.
- One of the best things to do with it is to add a sweetener like sugar or maple syrup to taste, and use it to season salads, along with oil.
- You can make it into a syrup by mixing equal parts vinegar and sugar by volume. It's good served warm or cool with game meat.
- Add it to barbecue sauce.
- Seasoning sour soups, especially borcht.
- Use it to make pickled beets and other pickles.
- Use it in a vinaigrette to season marinated vegetables, beans, and other composed salads.
FAQ
Vinegar powder is a chef secret for adding acid to dishes where you may not want additional liquid. To make a small amount to try, put your vinegar mother on a non-stick sheet such as a silpat/silicone mat, and dehydrate at 150 F until crisp. Store in a jar and powder to use it. Scoby mothers can be used similarly. I find it a novelty, personally.
Absolutely! Fresh cooked, or frozen fruit will all work fine Since the vinegar is "backslopped" with living vinegar, there is no need to worry about the success of fermentation if your fruit has been cooked or frozen, which can kill some of the living bacteria on it.
Yes, and it's delicious. You can substitute the juice of any fruit for the water in this recipe. To layer flavor, you can ferment the scraps of fruit in their pressed juice.
Classic Fruit Scrap Vinegar
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 lb fruit scrap from juicing, etc skins, seeds, etc
- 2 Tablespoons living vinegar such as apple cider, or vinegar from a previous batch
- 2 qts water
Sweetening
- 1 cups sugar, honey or maple syrup or to taste
Instructions
Fermentation
- Mix all ingredients, stir well to dissolve the sugar and put into a container, such as a plastic food tub, gallon water jug, bucket, etc.
- Cover the lid with cheesecloth, secure with twine or a rubber band, and leave out at room temperature, stirring as often as you can remember (I use a wooden spoon).
- After 2 weeks, strain out the solids, then pour the mixture into a half-gallon mason jar. Cover with cheesecloth and continue fermenting for another month or so, until the vinegar is good and strong. When it tastes sour like regular vinegar to you, screw a lid on the jar and store.
- If you forget to strain the solids out after one month, don't worry! It will turn out just fine and will have no effect on the success of the vinegar provided the vinegar is still allowed to respire and has access to air.
- During the process, if you get fruit flies which are annoying but will not harm the finished product refer to my trouble shooting tips in this post.
Sweetening (optional)
- Sweeten the finished vinegar by whisking in honey, maple syrup, or sugar to taste. Start with ½ cup of sweetener per quart of vinegar. Some add a splash of brandy too.
- Heat the sweetened vinegar until hot but not boiling. Cool and store in a container with a tight fitting lid at room temperature for up to two months, or refrigerated for long term storage.
Video
Accelerated Fruit Scrap Vinegar with Alcohol
Ingredients
- 750 grams 3 ¼ cups water
- 172 grams ¾ cup plus 1 Tablespoon previous fruit vinegar, or apple cider vinegar with live cultures
- 184 grams ¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons 80 proof vodka
- 1 lb 2 packed cups fruit scrap from cooking, juicing, etc
- 50 grams ¼ cup sugar
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a 2 quart sized container, cover with cheesecloth, and allow to ferment for 2 weeks at room temperature, stirring as often as you can remember (I use a wooden spoon).
- After two weeks, strain the vinegar and allow to continue fermenting, still covered with cloth, until you like the flavor, a month or two.
- When you're pleased with the flavor, and you can't taste any sweetness in the vinegar anymore, put it into jars and seal, then store in a cool dark place.
Candace
The body of the text says to strain after one week, but the recipe card (Classic) says a month. Which time is correct?
Alan Bergo
HI Candace. A couple weeks is fine. I adjusted it so everything's consistent, thanks for pointing that out. It's a really flexible recipe.
TC
Mine is more of a general question: Before finding your recipe I attempted Juneberry syrup, obviously did not add enough sugar, it tastes fine but too thin. I know I need to reduce it further but also add more sugar. I didn't keep a record of how much I originally added but after using your recipe for chokecherries, I think I did about 1/2 what I should have. Any recommendations on salvaging it? Some older Hutterite ladies, experts in this field, said add 2 cups sugar, reduce it down, keep better records(or records at all, I started) & use it as a learning experience. It'll still be good & I'll remember. Sounded solid to me & that's probably what I'll do but this being the 21st century I thought I'd ask the person from whom I got the recipe. I'm a beginner who started with refrigerator pickles & using your recipe for chokecherry syrup was my 1st foray into hot bath canning, successful btw. Thanks
Alan Bergo
Hi TC. This is a pretty easy question to answer, but I can’t recommend exact proportions for you as we don’t know the starting quantity of juice. Generally speaking, recipes will call for 1 cup of sugar per cup of juice. Heavy syrup recipes will call for 2 cups of sugar per cup of juice. I strongly recommend 1:1 sugar to juice, and boiling it for a few minutes before canning, just like the chokecherry syrup you made before. Just like with that recipe, I also recommend adding some vinegar (like homemade fruit vinegar from this post) but it’s optional. Hope that helps.
Judy Barbe
Hi Alan, I just finished some chokecherry vinegar and it has a sweet mellow flavor and developed a mother. Started grape 2 weeks ago and every thing is different. No mother, bubbles when I stir it, but the flavor is more bitter, smells and tastes like wine. Is this normal? I’ve not yet strained it but I’m tempted. Thanks! Judy
Alan Bergo
If you’re worried about it, just add a little splash of the chokecherry vinegar to speed up the process. If it smells like wine it’s probably because the liquid will basically become wine, and then turn to vinegar during the process.
Judy Barbe
Sounds like it’s behaving as it should but just needs more time, right? Wasn’t sure about the wine to vinegar part of the process.
Alan Bergo
It's hard to say without inspecting your jar. Each fruit is a little different. Add a splash of living vinegar and / or a few ripe, unwashed grapes or other fruits that are rich in bloom and it should help speed things up.