Make your own homemade raspberry vinegar
Raspberry vinegar is simple infused vinegar to make, and a great way to use up a glut of raspberries. My raspberries produce both in late Spring, and Autumn, so it doesn’t take many canes to meet our needs. Fresh raspberries in a supermarket are expensive, often imported, and usually tasteless compared to homegrown. An infused vinegar is often the same, and comes with additives you just don’t need. After making your own raspberry vinegar, you’ll never want store bought infused vinegars again!
Ingredients for raspberry vinegar
In my recipe I use:
2kg of frozen raspberries
2 litres of cider vinegar
500g of sugar
However, this recipe is very adaptable. You can use fresh raspberries, and you don’t have to add sugar at all, or you can add more depending on your personal taste.
Method
If using frozen raspberries get them in a large container as quickly as possible, and covered with the vinegar. I don’t like to allow the raspberries to defrost as this initially pulls condensation to them from the air. This then also freezes, thus adding extra water to the raspberries that will have to be boiled off later. I also don’t like to heat my vinegar and pour this over frozen fruit to stop that process. However, if you are using fresh fruit, especially stoned fruits, some recipes will recommend that you heat the vinegar first. Once we have the raspberries covered with vinegar we’re going to let them steep for a few days. It’s essential to put a lid on them, or cover the bowl with a towel. The fruit and vinegar attracts fruit flies, so we need to protect the mixture from anything getting in to it.
A few days later
After a few days it’s time to strain the fruit. You can use a clean tea towel and sieve to do this, or a jelly bag. I like to strain mine twice since I have learned that if the fruit is high in sugar, or you add any to it, it can sometimes start fermenting the pulp. It’s not a huge issue if it does. This is more like a natural fruit vinegar ferment process, and all that happens is that the sugars turn to alcohol, then to vinegar over time. This is one of the reasons I choose the type of bottles I do too, but we’ll discuss those later.
Once strained, it’s time to taste the juice whilst at room temperature. We’re tasting it to determine what sugar level the juice is at before deciding how much sugar to add, or not. Cold and heat changing how we perceive sweetness, so this is why we’re tasting it now. With our juice in a pan large enough to bring it to a boil, we’re going to allow it to simmer for at least ten minutes before adding in our sugar. This is to allow the juice to reduce off any excess water from being frozen, or just to concentrate the flavour slightly. Once this has been done, it’s time to add your sugar. Remember to stir until your sugar has dissolved so that it doesn’t sink and burn on the bottom of the pan.
What bottles to choose
The type of bottle you choose to put your raspberry vinegar in once it’s finished depends on a few factors. In usual preserving we use vinegar and sugar with fruit at a 50/50% ratio with heat as a preservative. If you choose not to heat your liquid for any reason, or you don’t sterilise your bottles then you should probably choose a kilner flip top type bottle in case of fermentation. Alternatively, you could keep your vinegar in the fridge. I choose the kilner flip top bottle because they are pretty to give as gifts, but also because in the event of any fermentation they are self burping. This means there is little chance of them exploding in the cupboard from a build up of gas.
It’s always worth remembering that your bottles should be prepared to be ready whilst your mixture is heating. Cold liquid should be poured in to cold bottles, and hot liquid in to hot bottles. This prevents sudden temperature shock cracking of the glass. If you have steady hands, you’ll probably be able to get away with pouring from a jug in to the bottles. If like me you have pour dexterity, you’ll need a funnel, or someone else to full them for you.
How to use your raspberry vinegar
The most basic use for this raspberry vinegar is to pour straight on to your salads. However, this raspberry vinegar can be used as an ingredient for other recipes too. Making your own curry? Try replacing the lemon juice element with this raspberry vinegar instead. This is fantastic with fresh home grown tomatoes, but what about putting a drizzle of this over a rich tomato soup with some olive oil. Want to marinade meats? use this as your acid component to tenderise and add in a fruitiness. Most especially good with venison and beef slow cooked in tomatoes and rosemary.
But this is one of our favourite recipes right here, Quick Pickled Onions
How long does raspberry vinegar last?
At the time of writing this post, I’m now in the eleventh year of living in this house. In the first year of being here I made Elderberry Vinegar, and I put a small bottle of that away. That bottle is now in its eleventh year too, and tastes divine. You can drink it from the spoon with no issues. It’s more like a really expensive balsamic vinegar than what you’d imagine a homemade infused vinegar to be. You can see that Elderberry Vinegar recipe HERE
I have now set aside some of my raspberry vinegar to age too, but the rest really doesn’t last that long in our house!
You can see the video that goes with the blog here-