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Making Flavored/Infused Vinegar: What Spice Blend and Will My Idea Work?

Anne Miller

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posted 6 years ago

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I used to make my own oil and vinegar dressing. The kind where you mix on the salad. The spices never seemed to have time to "mellow"

I am thinking of making Flavored vinegar using s salad spice blend but not straining the spices out. Will this work or will the spices just get gunky over time?

What spice blends do you think will work? I am thinking dried herbs/spices would be best to use.

Edited to add Infused to title and add image

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pusang halaw

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posted 6 years ago

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Hi Anne. Here in the Philippines we leave birds eye chilis along with sliced onions, ginger, garlic and pepper corns in our palm vinegar and they stay firm indefinitely if submerged completely (they start to break down without the vinegar). Not sure about herbs though, not even sure which I would use but I figure I'd do a quick infusion to avoid any unwanted (dis)coloration. And I don't know what you mean by:

Anne Miller wrote:The spices never seemed to have time to "mellow"

Are the flavors too sharp? Did you try altering the proportions? You could add a sweetener to round out the flavors - tiny amount of sugar or honey might work.

Anne Miller

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posted 6 years ago

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pusang halaw wrote:Are the flavors too sharp?

The problem was that the herbs were still "dry". They didn't have time to blend their flavors.

While searching yesterday, I found out that the proper term is probably "Infused" vinegar.

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David Livingston

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posted 6 years ago

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Raspberry vinegar works well

David

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pusang halaw

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Anne Miller wrote:The problem was that the herbs were still "dry". They didn't have time to blend their flavors. While searching yesterday, I found out that the proper term is probably "Infused" vinegar.

Like I said: "infusion". My first instinct when it comes to extracting flavors is to get the most number of cut surfaces on the 'sources' and the best way to accomplish this is to use a blender. Blitz your vinegar with the herbs and spices, taste constantly and add more until you're close to the concentration you want; let stand for a while; then strain out the solids. Or you could steep overnight after blitzing and see if time will extract more flavor from your ingredients. I figure salt will also 'bump up' the flavors you're trying to extract so season while you blend. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

pusang halaw

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posted 6 years ago

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I would also try using fresh herbs along with the dried stuff but I suspect that would affect the color of the final product.

Anne Miller

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posted 6 years ago

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Here are some ideas I found. I am thinking these would make great gifts:

Cranberries and cucumbers/Cayenne pepper

Chives

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
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Rebecca Norman

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posted 6 years ago

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There's probably a better way, but I once stuffed some fresh rosemary into a bottle of vinegar and left it. After a month or two it looked pretty nasty, the rosemary was turning brown and threadbare in there. Smelled okay, but definitely didn't look like a gift item.

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Stacy Witscher

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posted 6 years ago

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I do strain out the herbs for storage, but chive blossom infused vinegar is lovely, as is nasturtium pod infused vinegar. If you don't want to strain out the herbs, I would use dried. Whole spices never really soften enough that I would want to eat them whole in a salad, some people seem okay with it, but not me.

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Lucrecia Anderson

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posted 6 years ago

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If you plan to keep the oil and vinegar separate until putting it on your salad I would put the herbs in the oil, not the vinegar. People pack peppers in oil for storage (not sure how long it lasts, wouldn't store it for years that way but a few weeks in the fridge is likely fine).

As far as what type of herbs, if you like Italian dressing then use an Italian herb blend (they sell it already mixed -- McCormicks herb blend contains marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano, and basil.). Or if you have a favorite store bought oil and vinegar dressing then look up the list of ingredients and see what spices they put in it. I also wouldn't strain the herbs out just make sure they are in small little pieces like store bought Italian dressing.

Anne Miller

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Rebecca Norman wrote:There's probably a better way, but I once stuffed some fresh rosemary into a bottle of vinegar and left it. After a month or two it looked pretty nasty, the rosemary was turning brown and threadbare in there. Smelled okay, but definitely didn't look like a gift item.

Rebecca, did you put yours in the refrigerator?

When I originally did this experiment in March, I put fresh rosemary sprigs in a jar and filled the jar with vinegar. It is still infusing in my refrigerator. Still looks good.

I am good about experimenting and never getting around to testing the results. There is always something I am more interested in.

If I had a camera I would take a picture of the jar.

Those pictures I posted were pretty so I just thought I would share.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Rebecca Norman

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posted 2 years ago

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Wow, I came back to this thread after 4 years because I thought "Hey I tried infusing rosemary in vinegar before and it didn't work, so I want to learn how to do it better."

No I didn't refrigerate it, the time the fresh rosemary looked yucky in vinegar after a few weeks. From this thread I've learned some tactics:

1 Definitely strain the herbs out, in which case it doesn't matter how they look.

2 Refrigerate while infusing, and maybe the rosemary will keep its looks.

3 Try dried herbs instead of fresh, especially if I want to keep some in the bottle for looks.

I will try infusing the vinegar in a wide mouth jar with fresh herbs in the fridge, and then straining it and putting into ornamental jars with optional dried herbs for looks and shelf-stability.

The time I did it before was commercial white vinegar with rosemary, intended as a hair rinse. Now I'm thinking of making some for salad dressing, though. I also have a batch of homemade barley vinegar going now, made from local barley wine.

For salad dressing, which herbs do you think go nicest in an infused vinegar?

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G Freden

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posted 2 years ago

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Rebecca, I really like tarragon vinegar for salad dressing. Mint too, which we also serve on lamb. I use fresh leaves and blitz in the blender then refrigerate after.

My preferred salad dressing for 1-2 people:

1 tsp herb vinegar
1T heavy cream
A very small garlic clove, crushed (optional; my kids find it too strong)
pinch of salt

Stir and taste; too creamy: add a tiny drop more vinegar. Too tart: it won't taste so tart after dressing a salad, but can add a little more cream.

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