The Miracle of Vinegar: 150 easy recipes and uses for home, health and beauty

Copyright

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019

Copyright © Aggie MacKenzie and Emma Marsden 2019

Aggie MacKenzie and Emma Marsden asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © December 2018 ISBN: 9780008310585

To my gorgeous sons Rory and Ewan for their enduring patience, boundless creativity and sharing their brilliant recipe ideas with me.

— Aggie

Thanks to my mum for my culinary drive, to Kev for always tasting everything I’ve made (no matter what time of day) and to the rest of my family for their support.

— Emma

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

INTRODUCTION

THE HISTORY OF VINEGAR

TYPES OF VINEGAR

Which Vinegar When?

CLEANING TIPS

Kitchen

Bathroom

Laundry

Living Room

Other Ingenious Uses

HEALTH AND BEAUTY TIPS

Silky Skin Solutions

Treatments for Healthy-looking Hair

Pamper Feet and Hands

Tips and Tricks for Make-up Accessories

Soothing Cold Treatments

Ease Aches and Pains

Nasty Infections

Healthy From Inside Out

Give Your Body a Boost

And That’s Not All…

RECIPES

QUICK AND LIGHT MEALS

Use Vinegar to Poach Eggs

Rich Pickings From the Vegetable Drawer

Spiced Chickpeas for Fish, Chicken, Salad, Yogurt or Hummus

Hot Smoky Chicken for a Bun

One-pan Peanut Butter Noodles

Make the Most of Wizened Veg

MAINS

Friday Night Steak and Sides – Two Ways

Special Slow-roasted Tomatoes

Braised Lamb With Rosemary and Red Wine

Five-hour Pulled Pork

Pork Vindaloo

Cheat’s Chicken Tikka

Duck With Walnuts

Three Ways With Raspberry Vinegar

Red Pepper, Chickpea and Harissa Dressing for Pan-fried Hake

Mullet Escabeche

Stuffed Courgettes – Asian-style

SALADS

3 Classic (Ish) Salads and Their Dressings

A Simple Couscous Salad

Red Wine Vinegar Adds Zing to an Italian Salad

Making the Most of Preserved Tuna

DIPS AND SAUCES

Quick Dill Sauce for Smoked Fish

Homemade Hoisin-style Sauce

A Softer-tasting Aioli for Pan-fried Fish

One-minute Dips for Chips

A Canny Tip to Stretch an Avocado to Feed a Few More

Dipping Sauce for Spring Rolls and Dumplings

Classic Dressing for Oysters

SNACKS AND NIBBLES

Drinks Nibbles

Hot Salt and Vinegar Crisps

Cumin-spiced Nuts

Chilli-spiced Olives

The Beauty of Balsamic

Mushroom Toast Topper

Sherry Vinegar Mushrooms

DESSERTS

Sweet Raspberry Vinegar for Ice Cream and Drinks

Bring Out the Sweetness in Strawberries

Peaches With Verjus and Rosemary

Chocolate Sharing Mousse With Blueberries and Pecans

Golden Pavlova

BREAD AND BAKING

Chilli and Thyme Cornbread

Courgette and Carrot Loaf

Seeded Soda Bread

PICKLES AND PRESERVES

Red, White and Green Piccalilli

Pickled Pears With Star Anise and Ginger

Spiced Plums With Cinnamon, Juniper and Black Pepper

Super-quick Bowl of Chutney

About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION

Vinegar first came into my working life while I was at Good Housekeeping magazine in the early 1990s. I was director of the Institute and in this role I oversaw both the consumer testing and cookery departments. Each year, the January issue of the magazine carried a ‘Stains Special’… and vinegar always featured prominently.

When, in 2002, I was asked to do a screen test for a new television programme about cleaning, I drew on my GH experience and rattled off a list of all the kooky remedies I had picked up over the years, and again vinegar enjoyed multiple name-checks.

I passed the screen test, got the TV gig and co-presented How Clean is Your House? on Channel 4 from 2003 to 2009. My co-presenter and I generally used old-fashioned, inexpensive and homespun remedies for clean-ups – and very soon vinegar became the star of the show.

I am currently, about once a month, the ‘Midnight Expert’ guest on the BBC Radio 5 Live Phil Williams show. People call in and text between midnight and 1am with their cleaning quandaries – it’s strange but true, there is never any shortage of queries, even at that late hour. So often have I named vinegar as the solution to removing a stain that Phil, a good while back, instigated ‘Aggie’s Vinegar Bingo’, in which a big shout-out goes to the caller who, during the on-air hour, nails the nearest time to the V-word first getting a mention. Who knew vinegar could create so much buzz?

Vinegar is said to have been discovered by accident around 10,000 years ago, and it can be made from almost any fermentable item – such as wine, apples, pears, grapes, berries, beer and potatoes.

For over 2000 years, vinegar has been used to flavour and preserve foods, heal wounds and fight infections – as well as clean surfaces. There is some evidence that vinegar added to one’s diet will reduce the glucose response to a carbohydrate load both in healthy adults and in sufferers of diabetes. It has also been suggested that drinking a little vinegar each day is useful as a dietary aid because it imparts a feeling of fullness. Since I began working on this book I have been drinking two tablespoons of organic cider vinegar with a tiny squeeze of honey every morning. Who knows whether it’s doing me any good, but I am sure it won’t be doing me much harm either.

Both my sons are chefs in leading London restaurants and often use specialist vinegars for finishing dishes. Through them I have learned what a difference it can make and how to use it judiciously in my cooking.

It seemed natural that I should put my head together with that of my friend and former cookery editor colleague at Good Housekeeping, Emma Marsden, to come up with a book that combines my cleaning-with-vinegar expertise and her extensive culinary knowledge. Here is our – we hope – useful collection of tips, plus recipes that are, without exception, exciting, innovative and, importantly, straightforward. We hope you’ll enjoy them, together with beauty remedies and health hints – all using this humble yet important liquid in its many and various forms.

Aggie MacKenzie

THE HISTORY OF VINEGAR

The word vinegar comes from the French vin aigre, translated as sour wine, which accurately describes it. If you’ve ever left the dregs of an open bottle of wine for a few days and then attempted to drink the contents, only to be met with a sour taste, you’ve already started on the journey of vinegar-making. There are records of this magic ingredient being made as early as 5,000 BC in Babylon, and it’s thought that it was the result of a slipup while fermenting some wine. People cooking at that time experimented with this liquor, discovering that it could be used as both a condiment and ingredient.

Today it is a popular ingredient, produced commercially by either fast or slow fermentation. In fast fermentation, the liquid is oxygenated and the bacteria culture added. Slow fermentation is generally used for the production of specialised vinegars used in cooking; the culture of acetic acid bacteria grows on the surface of the liquid and fermentation evolves gradually over weeks or months and allows for the formation of a harmless slime made up of yeast and acetic acid bacteria, also known as the vinegar mother.

As history has already told, you can by all means leave a bottle of wine open – covered with a cloth that lets in air but not fruit flies – and eventually it will turn into vinegar. It may take months, though, so if you want to speed up the process and guarantee a result, here are a few pointers.

Firstly, vinegar is like sourdough and yogurt, in that it’s good to have some kind of starter to begin with. With sourdough it’s a leaven to add to flour and water; with yogurt it’s a couple of tablespoons of yogurt to add to milk that’s then heated. For vinegar, it’s some unpasteurised vinegar with the mother to start the process. These bottles are labelled clearly and you can buy them online and in supermarkets and delis.

Secondly, you need time. The mixture of wine and a vinegar mother won’t turn into vinegar overnight. You need a dark cupboard and the patience to wait for the mixture to ferment and the bacteria from the vinegar mother to turn the alcohol into acetic acid.

Thirdly, you need oxygen from the air, so use a wide-mouthed jar or ceramic pot and cover it with muslin or cheesecloth so the oxygen can get in but bugs can’t.

Whether you’re making wine or beer vinegar (see here), the basic recipe is much the same. Pour 400ml red wine or beer into a large open-mouthed jar (either ceramic or glass) then pour 200ml unpasteurised cider vinegar with the mother into the jar, too. Cover with a muslin or cheesecloth square and secure with a band. Label and store in a cool dark place for at least one month. It may take longer depending on conditions, but just keep tasting as you go. Some vinegar will naturally evaporate so, depending on how long it takes for the vinegar to brew, you’ll get around 400ml to use. You may find that a jelly-like substance forms in the liquid – don’t bin this, lift it out and transfer to another sterilised jar and use it to make another batch of vinegar with some of the unpasteurised liquor you’ve just fermented.

TYPES OF VINEGAR

With such an array of vinegars available, it can be bewildering to know which to choose – you don’t want to use an expensive sherry vinegar to clean your windows, nor might you want to add a brash distilled malt to a casserole.

The most common vinegars produced in this country are malt (the brown stuff you put on fish and chips) and distilled malt (the clear type used in cleaning and food preserving).

With wine and sherry vinegars, the quality of the base alcohol used has a direct bearing on how good the vinegar will taste. A decent wine vinegar will be aged for a number of years in wooden casks, which imbues complex and mellow tones.

Balsamic is in a class of its own: look for the terms tradizionale and DOC. Cheap versions will have been coloured and flavoured with caramel and won’t have the authentic flavour balance.

The inclusion of a good wine or sherry vinegar in a soup or stew can often reduce the amount of salt you would normally use. It can also help you cut the amount of fat required in a recipe because vinegar is a great balancer of flavours, thus lessening the need for as much cream, butter or oil. It’s worth experimenting with different types – you’ll soon find out what best suits you. As you read through the descriptions of the most popular vinegars here, we’re sure you’ll identify one or two that will match your palate and style of cooking.

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