By creating your own infused vinegar recipes, you can produce distinctive flavors that’ll punch up your cooking. Flavored vinegar recipes are limited only by your imagination and your foraging abilities.
Developing your own infused vinegar recipes is even better than creating vinegars from scratch. You just need a good base vinegar to start. From there, you can infuse your flavored vinegar recipes with almost anything that’s not poisonous or unhealthy.
The first stage involves taking several long walks and researching local plants to understand their flavor profiles. The second stage is becoming acquainted with the spirit of the place, letting it speak to you from a flavor perspective. For example, my local mountains in Southern California are mostly populated by pinyon pine and white fir. Other flavor accents include fennel, ponderosa pine, juniper, and various sagebrushes. I try to include all of those into the flavored vinegar recipes I create.
To develop my infused vinegar recipes, I usually start with a good-quality apple cider vinegar and infuse it with pinyon pine branches, white fir needles, and crushed unripe juniper berries, which will give the vinegar lemony and tangerine flavors with hints of pine. Mugwort and yarrow are ancestral herbs the Vikings and Celts used as brewing ingredients, but they also have medicinal and spiritual properties. I gather mugwort in fall, when the plant has deep, complex flavors that I associate with aging.
My mountain blend infused vinegar recipe varies each year. A typical blend may contain more than 12 different ingredients in various ratios. I age this vinegar much longer than any others, up to a couple of years.
In the end, the produce of your own infused vinegar recipes will be more than just vinegars. You’ll have established a personal spiritual connection to your place. This is how real food should be.
Shelf Life and Storage of Home-Infused Vinegars
One of the main differences between a vinegar made from fermentation and a vinegar infusion is the shelf life. Most infused vinegars retain optimal flavor for 5 to 6 months, or up to a year in good storage conditions. Pine, fir, and spruce products tend to keep their savory qualities for a long time. The reason most infused vinegars don’t keep as long as regular vinegars is because the flavors of the infusion come from organic compounds, which, unlike the vinegar itself, tend to deteriorate over time. I once made an infused wild mint vinegar that tasted like a regular apple cider vinegar a year later.
The best way to preserve flavor over time is proper storage. When you bottle the results of your infused vinegar recipes, fill the bottle as much as possible to avoid excessive exposure to air, and make sure it’s tightly sealed. Store it in a cool, dark place at 65 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, or in the fridge. Toss the product if you see any sign of mold, sliminess, or unusual cloudiness — but this has never happened to me in the 20 years I’ve been making infused vinegars.
First, Choose a Base for Your Infused Vinegar Recipe
Any vinegar can be used to create an infusion, so long as it’s at least 5% acidity. Be aware that some ingredients can reduce the acidity level, and you don’t want to end up with a flavored vinegar that’s prone to spoiling.
Colorado State University Extension recommends using the following vinegars for developing infused vinegar recipes: apple cider, white wine, red wine, champagne, balsamic, and distilled white — but I’ve never used distilled white. It’s best to pair specific types of vinegar with the appropriate savory ingredients. I’ve discovered that balsamic vinegar infused with mint is a bad pairing, but apple cider vinegar infused with white fir or pinyon pine is heavenly. Apple cider vinegar works well with fruits and berries, while white wine or champagne vinegar is usually paired with herbs. However, I often use apple cider vinegar or mead vinegar for herbs and chiles too. Red wine vinegar can be awesome with strongly flavored ingredients, such as black walnuts, olives, and garlic. Rice vinegar is milder and works well with subtle savory ingredients, such as seaweed.
Next, Find Flavoring Ingredients for Your Infused Vinegar Recipe
Here are some of the most common wild or store-bought ingredients used in flavored vinegar recipes. You can choose any one, or use a combination of them — whatever appeals to your personal tastes.
- Fruits and berries. Peels from oranges, grapefruits, limes, lemons; elderberries; blueberries; blackberries; raspberries; and sumac, manzanita, and juniper berries.
- Fresh herbs. Mint, fennel, tarragon, lemongrass, thyme, parsley, dill, basil, and rosemary.
- Dried herbs. Bay leaves, mugwort, yarrow, wild sages, and sagebrush.
- Spices. Peppercorns, black mustard, chiles, cinnamon, vanilla beans, and the seeds of wild fennel, celery, black mustard, cumin, coriander, dill, and fenugreek.
- Vegetables. Garlic, fresh peppers, onions, and shallots.
- Roots. Ginger, wild mustard, licorice, wild celery, and turmeric.
In my quest for truly local flavors, I’ve successfully used unusual ingredients to create infused vinegar recipes representative of whole environments, such as my California mountains and forests. You may not be able to find these in your immediate area, but the list will give you some ideas of what ingredients to forage for.
- Barks. I use roasted white oak and coast live oak bark to imbue smoky flavor. I collect bark from fallen oak trees or branches, particularly white and coast live oaks.
- Stems and twigs. Quite a few sages and aromatic herbs are great for infusing, including mugwort, sagebrush, black and white sage, and tarragon stems. Originally, I only used the leaves, but over time, I realized the stems and branches are also highly savory.
Pinyon pine is an interesting flavoring ingredient. You can use the green, unripe pine cones or the needles (although the needles can be somewhat bitter), but the small branches are spectacular. Remove the needles and split the branches into two lengthwise portions, then place them into the vinegar. - Wood. Although oak has traditionally been the wood of choice for flavoring vinegar, you can also purchase wood chips normally used for grilling or barbecuing — mesquite, birch, apple, apricot, hickory, and more. Locally, I forage wood chips from mesquite, figs, oak, and juniper. Toast them lightly with a kitchen torch or in your oven for smoky accents.
- Unripe berries. California juniper berries are much tastier when green and unripe — lemony, with strong hints of pine. Unripe, green manzanita berries can be used as a lemon substitute.
- Pine, fir, and spruce needles. I use juniper berries to infuse pine flavors, and I use pine or fir needles to infuse lemony or tangerine flavors. All true pine can be used for culinary purposes, although pregnant women shouldn’t ingest pine teas and infusions.
Some evergreens and conifers aren’t actually pines and should be avoided, including Norfolk Island pine and yew, which is deadly. - Seaweed. One of my favorite infused vinegars is made with smoked seaweed foraged on a trip to Northern California.
Finally, Decide on an Infusion Method
The two main infusion methods used in flavored vinegar recipes are hot (with heated vinegar) and cold (with room temperature or refrigerated vinegar).
Many of the infused vinegars I make, such as fresh mugwort in blueberry-infused vinegar, pair savory and aromatic herbs or spices with fruits or berries. If you create a recipe from scratch, sometimes you’ll need to make a decision about which method to use, or even to use both methods. A heated vinegar will be much better for spices, whereas a cold method would be better for other ingredients. As such, you could heat the vinegar, add the spices, let it cool, and then add other flavorings, such as berries.
Hot Infusion Method
Heat can help extract flavors from ingredients and is especially effective with spices and dried herbs. I use this method to make spicy vinegar with dried chili pods, or vinegar with dehydrated elderberries.
Start by heating the vinegar to just below the boiling point. Meanwhile, clean the herbs, spices, vegetables, fruits, or other ingredients if necessary. You can also chop or bruise savory herbs for optimal extraction. I often cut berries with the tip of a knife to release their essence.
Place the ingredients in a clean jar, then add the hot vinegar. Don’t overpack, and maintain a 1/2-inch headspace. Use the guidelines in “Ratio of Ingredients to Vinegar“.
Add a lid to the jar and store it in a cool, dark place, like a basement or fridge. Taste after a couple of weeks to see if you like it. Most infused vinegars need to be aged for at least a month for optimal flavors, but that’s not always the case if you use extremely flavorful ingredients. Ultimately, it’s up to you, so taste as you go along. If the taste is too strong, add more vinegar.
When I’m happy with the flavor, I stop the aging process by straining the vinegar into a bottle, sometimes adding a sprig or two of fresh herbs or berries for a decorative flourish. For long-term storage, make sure to fill the bottle to the top to minimize oxygen exposure. Store the infused vinegar in a cool, dark place, such as a basement or fridge. Shelf life is about six months, or up to a year if the temperature is kept below 65 degrees.
Cold Infusion Method
I use this traditional method most frequently in my infused vinegar recipes, because heat can alter the flavors of many ingredients, such as pine, fir, juniper berries, spruce, and others. Both pasteurized and raw vinegar have worked for me without any problems.
I try to follow a ratio of 1 part flavoring ingredients to 2 parts vinegar by volume. If I know the berries, fruits, or other ingredients are quite acidic, I may increase the ratio to 1 part infusing matter per 1 part vinegar. For making white fir needle vinegar, I tested the pH of a paste made from the fresh needles and it was very low, so I use a 1-to-1 ratio for this vinegar.
To cold infuse vinegar, first wash the flavoring ingredients in cold water and remove any bad parts. If you don’t forage your ingredients, make sure they’re fresh and organic. To better extract flavors, herbs can be bruised, fruits can be chopped, and berries can be crushed or pricked with the tip of a knife.
Place the ingredients in a jar using the ratio of 1 part infusing material to 2 parts vinegar. Add a lid and store in a cool, dark place. Shake the contents gently at least once a day for the first 3 to 4 days, then about once a week after that. Taste as you go along, and stop the process when you’re happy with the flavor. I usually age the vinegar for 3 to 4 weeks, then strain and bottle it.
Minimize oxygen exposure by filling the bottle as much as possible and storing it appropriately. Shelf life will be about six months if the temperature is below 65 degrees, or a few weeks if the temperature is higher. I don’t age raw berry or fruit infusions for more than a month for optimal flavor.
Ratio of Ingredients to Vinegar
Sometimes, it’s a matter of taste how much of a particular ingredient you infuse in vinegar. An excessive amount of thyme or bay leaves isn’t going to taste great. Limits can also be related to food safety. If an ingredient isn’t acidic and you use too much of it, you could raise the pH and make the vinegar prone to spoiling.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation sets the following maximums for individual ingredients per 2 cups vinegar:
- Fresh herbs: 2 to 3 sprigs
- Dried herbs: 1 teaspoon
- Fruits and berries: 1 to 2 cups; 1 orange or lemon peel
- Vegetables: 1 to 2 cups
- Spices: 1/2 teaspoon
I like to calculate the pH of some of the wild ingredients, and I use with pH test strips. Pine, spruce, and fir needles are quite acidic (low pH), and I can therefore use a greater amount of them in my homemade infusions. I have no problem using a ratio of 1 part pine or fir needles or juniper berries to 2 parts vinegar. I use a greater quantity of dried foraged herbs if the flavors are milder than commercial savory herbs. For example, chickweed has less intense flavors than rosemary. On the other hand, some sages and sagebrushes are so pungent that I choose to use much less than recommended.
More from Wildcrafted Vinegars
Before making your own infused vinegar recipes, start with this infused elderflower vinegar recipe. This is a classic recipe in Europe.
Pascal Baudar is a forager, wildcrafter, and teacher of traditional food preservation techniques. He’s the author of four books. This excerpt is reprinted from Wildcrafted Vinegars (Chelsea Green Publishing).
Originally published as “Unique Infused Vinegars” in the August/September 2023 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
