To begin with it helps to save a few vinegar bottles. I find the SuperValu range very good as the shaker thingies come out easily for cleaning. Also the labels are easily removed. There is nothing more annoying than labels that you have to scrape and soak in hot water to get off glue.
I followed a River Cottage recipe (roughly) but halved the sugar.
250g blackberries
300ml red wine vinegar
Put the blackberries in a bowl and pour the vinegar over. Cover loosely and leave for 4 or 5 days.
Strain the vinegar mix through a double layer of muslin. Gather up the muslin and give it all a good squeeze until you extract every last bit of the liquid. Measure the liquid. Pour into a saucepan and for every 600ml add 200g sugar (the RC recipe adds 454g sugar). I got exactly 600ml out of the above quantities. Heat slowly stirring to dissolve the sugar and bring to the boil. Cool and pour into the cleaned and sterilised bottles. Label and store for a few months.
I had a small quantity leftover and used it immediately in a salad dressing (1 part to 3 parts extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard and seasoning) and it was delicious but it will mature and the flavour will improve.
I also made one batch with half and half blackberries and blackcurrants and followed the method above. If you like you could add a bit of extra sugar to the blackberry and blackcurrant vinegar.
Sounds delicious, Margaret. I don't see any blackberries around but I might try it with damsons. It's worth a shot!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, producer at Bloom from west of Ireland was selling a range of vinegars from all sorts of fruits and foraged ingredients. They were amazing. I'd love some damsons and am on hunt for sloes at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWe have a small family run artisan food business called The Wild Irish Foragers & Preservers & amongst other things we do produce a range of Shrubs which are apple cider vinegar infused with wild flowers/herbs/berries. Very old traditional recipe too x
ReplyDeleteI think I met you at Taste of Cavan? Love all the old ways of preservation and with hedgerows dripping with fruit now, it's mad not to use it.
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