Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: LILLILEAF on September 01, 2017, 07:16

Title: pickling vinegars
Post by: LILLILEAF on September 01, 2017, 07:16
I pickled some beetroot last year with some vinegar a friend gave me,it was a well known make,so after leaving it for some 6 months looking forward to my first home pickled food.
It was not very nice at all the vinegar was so strong :(so my question is can you buy different types of pickling vinegar?can anyone help.Lillileaf
Title: Re: pickling vinegars
Post by: New shoot on September 01, 2017, 07:55
The simplest way is to add a little sugar to your plain malt vinegar.  You can add anything from a tablespoon per jar to a full on sweet pickle mix which is good for stuff like chillies.  You might be able to rescue that beetroot by adding some sugar and leaving it a few more weeks.

You can also use wine or cider vinegar, which are milder.
Title: Re: pickling vinegars
Post by: Pescador on September 01, 2017, 15:41
Vinegar for pickling needs to be a minimum of 5% acetic acid for it to preserve the contents properly.
Adding pickling spice, or sugar would help modify the flavour somewhat.
Title: Re: pickling vinegars
Post by: LILLILEAF on September 02, 2017, 07:51
Thanks for the info,but i gave the beetroot to some one at work,but i have some more growing so i will try again :).
Title: Re: pickling vinegars
Post by: New shoot on September 02, 2017, 10:01
Vinegar for pickling needs to be a minimum of 5% acetic acid for it to preserve the contents properly.

Plain wine and cider vinegar generally are.  They are just milder tasting than malt.

I would use malt for proper pickled onions, but even then, I would add a bit of sugar to take the edge off  :)