Basil Flower Vinegar

One of my favorite seasonings is Basil Flower Vinegar, it adds a great deal of flavor without much being used, and is good in any tomato dish as well as in salad dressings and sauces or on summer squash and mushroom stir-fry. Making the vinegar itself is the hard part, but any good sweet red wine in a tun with an aerator stone and some vinegar bacteria ("Mother" in technical terms) will produce good Balsamic vinegar in time. I'm going to list recipes below which utilize the vinegar once it is made.

Basil Flower Vinegar #1

12 oz Balsamic Vinegar
1 loose cup of flowers of Siam Queen or Persian Basil
1 whole Clove

Basil Flower Vinegar #2

12 oz Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 loose cup Siam Queen or Persian Basil flowers
1/2 loose cup Sweet Basil flowers

Yum!
I made a batch of basil vinegar once with overdone kombucha (organic balsamic is waaay too expensive for me)
I like your addition of a single clove, small but powerful.
Question - do you really pick the flowers off, so is it worth the effort for flavour not using the leaves and stems?

Elanor Pog wrote:Yum!
I made a batch of basil vinegar once with overdone kombucha (organic balsamic is waaay too expensive for me)
I like your addition of a single clove, small but powerful.
Question - do you really pick the flowers off, so is it worth the effort for flavour not using the leaves and stems?

You pick the flowers off anyways to extend the lifespan of the basil plants, this is one way I use the flowers. I also dry the flowers and crumble them into pasta and pizza. I think it is the best part of the plants.

Another good one is to use cider vinegar, put in 2 dry yatsufusa peppers and 1 basil leaf. I used to use it to season pork dishes.