How to Make Vinegar Like a Victorian by Kristin Holt

by Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author

of Sweet Romance set in the Victorian American West

Where does vinegar come from? 

The grocery store, of course. Even pioneer women could purchase vinegar at their nearest town general store or grocery. Yet knowing the twin Victorian virtues of THRIFT and ECONOMY, it's evident many penny-pinching homemakers would have taken the advice in cook books of their day (yes, spelled as two words back then) and in their city newspapers. Thrifty advice: Make Your Own.

How?

Why, with ingredients and tools you have lying about the homestead, my dear. Things like rainwater, apple peels, cider, yeast, molasses, and brown paper. Never forget the brown paper. 

Why?

Beyond the economy of making your own vinegar, what if you live a long way from your corner store? With all those long hours of daylight, homesteading women had plenty of time (hear my sarcasm) to make their own vinegar. 

Let's explore a few short recipes, beginning with one shared in 1852:

Vinegar Recipe explaining use of brown paper strips. The Perry County Democrat of Bloomfield, PA. November 24, 1852.

The instructions, ingredients, and method are worth revisiting, especially in the absence of this 1852 Pennsylvania newspaper clipping. Here's a careful transcription:

Making Vinegar.--Vinegar, according to a writer in the Genesee Farmer, is cheaply made. We re-publish his recipe: "To eight gallons of clear rain water, add three quarts of molasses; put into a good cask, shake well, and add two or three spoonfuls of good yeast cakes. If in summer, place the cask in the sun; if in winter, near the chimney, where it may be warm. In ten or fifteen days, add to the liquor a sheet of brown paper, torn in strips, dipped in molasses, and good vinegar will be produced. The paper will, in this way, form what is called the 'mother,' or life of the vinegar."

In 1860, Scientific American's recipe for vinegar appealed to the editors (??) of  The Mountaineer (Salt Lake City, Utah Territory), and they reprinted it. This one starts with forty gallons of rain water. Note that the key ingredient in this vinegar recipe is acetic acid.

Vinegar Recipe calls for Acetic Acid. Published in The Mountaineer of SLC, Utah Territory. April 14, 1860.

Pretty cool, isn't it?

Now, it seems, some people will buy anything. Including a simple recipe for vinegar. In 1873, some dude sold a vinegar recipe to anyone who'd send him 50 cents.

Vinegar Recipe for sale (50 cents), Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, NY. November 26, 1873.

This 1883 recipe appeared in Our New Cook Book and Household Recipes, providing a good vinegar that costs only a pint of honey... and another that requires only apple peelings and hard work.

Vinegar recipes: one calls for honey, another for daily apple peels. Published in Our New Cook Book and Household Receipts, 1883.

The following Corn Vinegar Recipe calls for field corn as a 'starter,' and also references a "mother that has formed on other vinegar...." I understand contextually, but have never seen one.

Wikipedia Image: Mother of Vinegar: "Wikipedia image: Mother of Vinegar. "Mother of vinegar is a substance composed of a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria that develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids, which turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air. It is added to wine, cider, or other alcoholic liquids to produce vinegar."

Note to Victorian-era housekeepers. Do not throw away the muck in the vinegar. You'll wish you had it later.

Corn Vinegar Recipe published in New England Farmer of Boston, Mass. September 25, 1886.

Ah! At last! Cider Vinegar-- something that sounds more familiar to our 2020 palates.

Cider Vinegar by the drip method. Published in The Daily Journal of New Bern, North Carolina. August 5, 1888.

After comparing and contrasting this small collection of vinegar how-to-make-your-own recipes, United States Victorian-era style, I do believe I'll continue to buy mine at the store. But the ideas are percolating, brewing, about vinegar trouble to put my characters through...

Thanks for reading!

Come see a few related articles both here on Sweet Americana Sweethearts and on my own site, KristinHolt.com.

 

Copyright Ⓒ 2019 Kristin Holt LC

Using Food to Enrich Your Story

Most historical readers know that the America of the 1800s was a true melting pot of cultures. Before restrictions were placed on the number of immigrants from any particular country, people from many European countries headed to America because of the new opportunities and open land. I like to use that fact to depict characters who would still be holding onto the traditions from their native country.

Food is a great way to show details about another culture and give depth to a character. Contemporary readers are aware of all types of different cuisines available in their hometown, some having a wider variety than others. Even the most traditional mid-western town probably has at least one Chinese takeout and a pizza place. I like to include in my stories a possible way in which those restaurants might have been developed.

In Dulcina, book 5 in The Widows of Wildcat Ridge series, I focused on the Hispanic heritages of my hero and heroine. Growing up as neighbors on adjacent ranches in New Mexico Territory, Dulcina and Gabriel shared a common background and a love for the same food. Big family meals are important part of their culture. When Dulcina comes up with a plan to offer food as a way to keep her saloon open, she falls back on what she knows--the tamales she helped make while a child.

In Dance Toward the Light, book 3 of Entertainers of the West series, the hero, Valerik, is of Russian descent who stays in his brother’s house while Nicolai’s on his honeymoon. With this story, I introduced the reader to solyanka (a soup with vegetables, tinned beef, and pickled cucumbers) and rye peasant bread.

With each story, I research recipes, and when a food scene is included, then I make sure to use a dish typical of that ethnic group. Or I use a dish that could have been made with the ingredients available in that geographic location. A widow living in an apartment over her seamstress shop in the Colorado mountains is more likely to make gingerbread or molasses cake as a holiday treat than any recipe requiring chocolate or other expensive or hard-to-obtain ingredients. (The Ring That Binds)

What foods served by your family while you were growing up or served by you to your own family can be attributed to your heritage? One person who leaves a comment will be given the choice of an ecopy of one of my backlist titles.

Zeppole

by Shanna Hatfield

When I'm researching details for one of my historical romances, I never quite know what adventures it will lead to.
Sometimes they can be quite tasty.

When I wrote Caterina (the second book in the Pendleton Petticoats series), I researched the type of food an Italian girl who loves to cook might make in the early 1900s. I even decided to try a few recipes.

Lucky enough to stumble across a cookbook, Italian Cooking, written by Dorothy Daly in 1900, it really helped me know the types of ingredients Caterina would have used and had available as well as cooking methods.

Of my experiments, Captain Cavedweller liked Zeppole the most. 

Zeppole are Italian pastries, deep-fried of various sizes (especially if I’m the one making them!). Typically, they are about four inches in diameter.

I almost had to beat CC away with my spatula when I made these because he ate them about as fast as I cooked them.

Rich and yeasty, they were really simple to make and amazingly tasty.

Start with some very basic ingredients.

Mix the flour, sugar, and salt together and set aside.

Mix yeast with warm water and let set about five minutes.

Lightly whip eggs into yeast.

Then add the flour mixture. The dough will be really sticky – not like bread dough.

Set in a warm spot, cover with a dish towel and let rise for about 20 minutes. Stir it back down and repeat the process. Can’t you almost smell the yest with those delicious looking bubbles in the dough?

Heat about four cups of oil in a heavy saucepan (you want a couple inches of oil in there) and heat over medium-high heat until a bit of dough dropped in sizzles. Drop a heaping spoon of dough (carefully!) into the oil and fry until golden brown. These sweet little babies turn themselves over so you don’t have to, unless you want to, then by all means- go right ahead!

While the Zeppole cool enough to be handled, scoop some powdered sugar into a lunch bag. Drop in a piece of the fried dough and give it a good shake then be prepared to fight people off.

You can also mix up some cinnamon and sugar…

And roll them around in it.

See wasn’t that easy?

Zeppole
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. instant yeast
1 cup warm water
3 eggs
Mix flour, sugar and salt then set aside.
Empty yeast into a large bowl with warm water. Stir until dissolved then let rest about five minutes.
Add in eggs and whip lightly then add flour and stir until well mixed.
Cover bowl with a dish towel and set in a warm place for 20 minutes. Stir down the dough and let rise again before frying.
Heat a heavy-duty pan of oil on medium-high heat until a drop of dough sizzles in the pan.
Drop a tablespoon full of the dough (think in terms of the size of a plum) into the oil, being carefully not to burn yourself on any splatters and cook until golden brown. The Zeppole turn themselves over when they are cooking, which is fun to watch.
Drain on paper towels or paper bags (to soak up the grease) then drench in sugar. I liked powdered sugar best and CC preferred cinnamon and sugar. Either is delicious.
You can also serve these with fruit or whipped cream, if you so desire. (Or stand over the bag with powdered sugar devouring these like a ravenous beast.)

~*~

  A hopeless romantic with a bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure, Shanna Hatfield is a bestselling author of sweet romantic fiction written with a healthy dose of humor. In addition to blogging and eating too much chocolate, she is completely smitten with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller. Shanna creates character-driven romances with realistic heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.” She is a member of Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, and Romance Writers of America.  

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