Re using pickling vinegar

I'd have thought that it would have lost it strength by leeching out the water content of the onions and I seem to remember reading somewhere that the acetic acid content of the vinegar is somewhat diminished.

Just chuck it on your chips!

If you have done wot I 'ave dun and made your own spiced vinegar tis a shame to chuck it.  I re-invigorate it with a bit of white vinegar and re-use.   (and the trouble I had finding blade mace)!      Cheers,    Tony

(and the trouble I had finding blade mace)!     

I've used a brilliant online spice merchant in the past, http://thespiceworks.co.uk/  However, it seems they may have stopped doing mace blades, which is a shame because they were such good value - 100g for £3.16.  Anyway, the website is an Aladdin's cave for anyone interested in spices, whether for pickling or cooking in general, and I always get my cinnamon sticks from them because they're much better quality/size than you get in the supermarkets.  Same goes for all their stuff - their allspice berries are far bigger and seem fresher/more fragrant, and they do a fab 5-colour pepper mix for the pepper mill.  If you spend a tenner, you get free p&p too.

As for the mace blades, there are a couple of other online spice merchants who do them (and on eBay too), but unfortunately they're not as cheap as The Spiceworks were

Re the mace blades mentioned in my previous post, I emailed The Spiceworks earlier and they say although they're out of stock at the moment, they're expeciting further stocks in the not too distant future.  So, watch this space ... well, their space !www.thespiceworks.co.uk