Homemade pine needle vinegar
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Hedgerow food, Preserving, Sauces Gravy Dressings | 12 comments
Photo: Pine needles
It was Danny’s turn to buy the Balsamic vinegar last weekend. Someone had put an expensive bottle of Balsamic beside the cheap ones in Tesco and he ended up paying five times more than he could have. The resulting shriek got me thinking about Balsamic vinegar in general.
The price and quality of Balsamic vinegar can vary enormously. We have a very expensive bottle that we use occasionally for dipping or salads and generally have a ‘cheap’ bottle that we use for cooking. But cheap Balsamic vinegar is still much more expensive than other vinegars.
We use it a lot in cooking as it adds a wonderful depth to slow cooked stews and casseroles. I couldn’t think of a way of making a cheaper alternative until I came across this recipe for pine needle vinegar on Eat Weeds. Apparently it tastes similar to Balsamic vinegar.
Danny was suspicious.
“I just don’t see how it could work. Anyway where are you going to get pine needles from?”
The recent storms sent us a small branch from one of Anne Mary’s Wellingtonian pine trees. A perfect present from her woods. I was delighted with the bounty. Robin Harford suggests nibbling the pine needles from several trees to chose a good aromatic one. There was no choice involved for me but I nibbled a pine needle and it tasted rather good – rich, earthy, aromatic flavours. I could see that the combination of the pine needles infused in cider vinegar could taste wonderful.
So that’s what I’ll be making today. It should be ready by the New Year and already I can’t wait to taste it.
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Interesting idea! I may have to buy some cider vinegar to try this with. Rather like the idea of sweetening it – perhaps a drop of maple syrup would work well for that.
Very much looking forward to hearing how it tastes in a few weeks time! (Btw I too have a hubby who is suspicious of this one lol).
Hi Magic Cochin
Well my brew is looking good already. You can sample some at the Grand Pickled Walnut Challenge in 2010!
Hi Joanna
Haven’t experimented with making my own vinegar (yet!)
Hi Helen
Results in six weeks time ?
Hi Paula
Your recipe sounds wonderful. Hopefully with our new strawberry cultivation we will be able to try this next year!
Hi Veronica
I’m excited by this.
Men are so whimpy sometimes when it comes to experimenting.
Hi Diane
Good idea adding syrup to sweeten it.
Interesting using spruce in beer making. Danny is just about to start brewing his own and would be interested in that.
Hi Barney
That’s amazing! But then Italians do take their food very seriously. I wonder if I could make a little jacket for my pine needle vinegar to give it more hanger appeal?
Hi Tamar
Great. Why not jump in and have a go. I trust Robin – if he says it’s good it’s good.
That’s crazy! I’m going to try it right away.
We have pine needles galore, currently covering every surface of our property. (And I thought they were supposed to be evergreen!) If you run into a shortage, I’d be happy to send you some (although since part of the point of this is that it’s inexpensive, perhaps that’s not such a great idea).
And, Paula, I love the ice cream idea.
I know what you mean about the cost of some balsamics. I was in in Italy earlier this year and in some of the delis the bottles are locked in cabinets with security alarms attached. They even have little leather cases padded out to protect the bottles! Madness, 50ml for the price of a weekend away!
Balsamic vinegar, at least the cheap stuff we get, tastes quite sweet. I suppose you could experiment by adding sugar or sugar syrup to a small sample. I know where there are several pine trees in the neighborhood so I’ll be looking forward to your results.
My husband brewed a batch of beer this spring with some young spruce shoots from our own trees (A previous owner must have bought live Christmas trees ever year) and it came out very nice. The spruce was in addition to the other ingredients although I think it was sometimes a substitute for hops.
good heavens! You’ll have to let us know how it turns out. There are tons of pine trees around here — they are basically large-scale weeds. My husband is as sceptical as Danny — what is it with men? 😉
This will be fun to try- thanks for passing it on. I think 500ml cider vinegar is cheap enough to expirement with.
Here’s something fun and delicious to do with balsamic vinegar: Chop up about 3/4 of forzen strawberries and put in cold mixing bowl (you could use fresh, but they freeze in the ice cream anyway and tend to melt it, so you may as well start with frozen). Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of good quality balsamic vinegar and several grinds of a spicy black peppercorn over the top and mix. Add enough good quality vanilla ice cream for two people and mix it all up quickly and serve. It sounds nutty but I promise you it’s quite yummy. This is especially fun to do in front of dinner quests as they have no clue how good it’s going to be. But at least double the recipe if you’re going to do that.
Oh errr…. I think I’m with Danny on this one but keep me posted I will check in to get results.
This is fantastic, now I can get something that replaces balsamic vinegar with a more local product. We have no shortage of pine needles and some of them are really aromatic, I know just the tree. Next year I will have to experiment with making the vinegar too, any ideas?
That sounds interesting – you will tell us how it turns out, won’t you?
I don’t use much Balsamic vinegar, but I recently bought a bottle of Aspall’s Balsamic – it’s made in Italy, not Suffolk like their Apple Cider Vinegar.
We once had Scot’s Pine needle tea, served from a flask in a canoe while we watched beavers. It tasted pretty good – but then anything would have tasted good – I was so excited about seeing a beaver in the wild!
I’m off to nibble some pine needles…
Celia