Vinegar success

After letting my blended cider-and-red-wine vinegar ferment for a week, as recommended, I checked on it. It definitely smelled more like vinegar than wine at that point, but I decided to leave it for another week. A couple of days later, it was smelling sharper still, and I had some leftover wine, so I added that to the mix.

Two days ago, when I checked on it again, a layer of cellulose (the mother) had formed on top, so I removed it and decided the vinegar was ready for me to cook with it. After looking through several books and magazines for some vinegar-heavy preparations, I settled on Sauerbraten. I made up the marinade last night, which used half a cup of my homemade vinegar, and my blade roast is marinating until tomorrow.

I’m leaving the rest of the vinegar to ferment a while longer, then I’ll bottle a share of it to age, and top off the jar with more red wine to continue the process. More to come!