Just put up some chive vinegar!

[Whitewater]

Here's hoping I got it right

I snipped off about half the heads of my chive 'bush', and wound up packing 2 pint canning jars (Bell, brand new). Then I got some distilled white vinegar at Costco (all-natural, it says) and put the vinegar over the chive flower heads.

Given the mass of the flowers, I suspect that I'll get about a pint of chive vinegar when all is said and done.

Not two minutes later, I noticed that the vinegar had already begun to take on a slight pink cast . . . it's going to be beautiful when it's all done.

I hope I used the right sort of vinegar, can anybody advise? There are more chives that have yet to be snipped, if I have to do it over again for some reason. I only used about half of what I've got blooming right now.


Whitewater

 

[wifezilla]

I use white vinegar to get the good purple color, but I am sure you can use any vinegar. I do usually heat my vinegar up a bit first, but I have done it without heating it too.

 

[obsessed]

What do you do with the Chive vinegar? I am not up to speed on the use of vinegar much less flavored vinegars.

 

[Whitewater]

I'm planning on making salad dressing/sandwich fixin's with it, a la oil and vinegar, using the chive vinegar and some olive oil.

If it works it might be a decent base for a meat condiment, or something too.

we'll have to see!


Whitewater

 

[wifezilla]

It makes the best salad dressing ever

 

[Whitewater]

Well, it's day 3 of the chive vinegar experiment and so far, so good. The flowers have risen to the top of the container (but since I stuffed them in, there's only a bit more than an inch of clear liquid at the bottom of the jar!), the vinegar has turned a lovely rich pink color, and I am sure that the liquid has been infused with chive flavor.

I'm going to leave it until tomorrow and then strain, then put all the liquid into another jar.

Hopefully on Monday (the day it's NOT supposed to rain this week) I can harvest the rest of the chives themselves and the flowers I left behind and start another batch of the vinegar.

More updates as things progress


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

Ok, so I drained the liquid off of the flowers yesterday and wow, I got more chive vinegar than I expected, nearly 2 pints worth! I will know that for the future.

It's a beautiful deep pink color, and smells really good, though when I took an experimental sip my eyes crossed and my hair stood on end and it was all I could do to swallow -- MAN that stuff is STRONG. It's going to need olive oil just to make it edible!!!

And it wasn't the chive flavor, either, as a matter of fact, the chive flavor was a muted undertone, this stuff tasted like harsh, brand-new alcohol, but without the benefit of sugar. Yikes.

Next batch, I'm going to let it mellow for about twice as long and see what happens.

(The only thing I can use this stuff for is pickling, either pickles or peppers . . .)



Whitewater

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I make mine with both white wine or cider vinegars & I don't pack too many chive heads in as the taste gets too strong for me. In fact your post reminded me to collect my first chive flowers of this year -- thank you!
I tried my batch this morning & it tastes great (this lot is cider vinegar), perfect for salad dressings.

You say yours is very harsh, did you taste it before you added the flowers? I find that a lot of white malt distilled vinegar that you get in bulk are too acrid & strong which is why they are used for pickling (with lots of added spices & herbs). If you want it for salad dressings try one of the others types. I also do flavoured vinegars with tarragon or rosemary (bruise the herb first).



:rose Hattie :rose