Making Flavored Vinegar Listen to the article http://outreach.missouri.edu/extensioninfoline/realaudio/Lori_Wuellner/Makin g_flavored_vinegar.ram Making flavored vinegars has become popular for gift-giving and personal enjoyment. You can add herbs, mixture of herbs, spices, fruits or vegetables to a vinegar. The vinegar that you use will depend on what is added to it, whether it be apple cider, distilled white, wine or a combination. Apple cider compliments fruits, white distilled goes well with delicate herbs and wine with stronger herbs such as garlic and tarragon. Other suggestions include: a.. Use 3 to 4 sprigs of fresh herbs to each pint of vinegar being certain to completely immerse the herbs. b.. Dried herbs may also be used. It takes 3 tablespoons of dried herbs to each pint of vinegar. Let the vinegar stand 3 to 4 weeks, strain through damp cheesecloth and discard. c.. In most cases it takes 3 to 4 weeks for flavors to develop. Let the container stand, tightly capped, in a cool dark place. Use within 3 to 4 months. d.. Flavors in foods that work well in vinegar include lemon or orange peel, especially with mint, cinnamon and cloves; garlic cloves, jalapeno pepper and citrus peel which can be treaded for ease on bamboo skewers. e.. To speed the process by a week or so, crumble or bruise the herbs and fruits. When the vinegar has reached the desired flavor, strain and return vinegar to clean containers. A sprig of fresh herbs can be added for decoration and identification. f.. If flavors become too strong, flavored vinegars may be diluted with more of the same basic vinegar. Source: Making Flavored Vinegars, Heinz a.. For flavored vinegar recipes write to: Making Flavored Vinegars c/o Heinz USA P.O. Box 57 Pittsburg, PA 15230-90057 Lori Wuellner, lwuellner@oz.oznet.ksu.edu County Extension Agent, Family and Consumer Services Wyandotte County, Kansas Kansas State University Research and Extension