Flavoured Vinegar

Flavoured wine vinegar has been an important ingredient in French cooking since medieval times when vinegar was essential in order to keep meat edible in warm weather. If you made the tarragon vinegar it could be used for my French Cabbage Salad recipe if we had 6 weeks to wait. You can choose from shallot, garlic, mustard or tarragon flavored vinegar to make. From "The French Farmhouse Kitchen" Posted for Zaar World Tour 2006

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Yields: 1 3/4 pints

Ingredients

• 1 3⁄4 pints  plain wine vinegar
• 4 -5  shallots, peeled and slightly crushed, threaded on fine string or
• 4  garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed or
• 2  tablespoons mustard seeds or 1  stalk  long leafy branch tarragon, twice the length of the bottle

Directions

1. Collect the number of bottles necessary, with sound corks to fit. Wash the bottles in hot soapy water, rinse first in very hot water then in cold, drain, dry and heat in a slow oven. Scald the corks in boiling water.
2. Pour the vinegar into an enamel-lined or stainless steel pan and over a low temperature bring slowly to blood heat.
3. It should be quite warm to the touch of a knuckle joint, no more.
4. Add shallots, garlic, mustard seed or tarragon to the warm bottles. (If using tarragon, this should be bent double and pushed down the neck of the bottle.).
5. Fill up with warm vinegar, cork down tightly, and place on a sunny window sill to mature for 6 weeks before use.