Infused vinegar sounds very Parisian and maybe a bit difficult, not to mention expensive, but nothing could be further from the truth. Infused vinegars are a lovely way to add extra flavor and nutrition to whatever you use them in. Imagine mixing up your fresh olive oil and rosemary and basil-infused vinegar for your lunch salad. Such pleasure for your everyday meals! Or having a spray bottle faintly scented of lemon and thyme to do your dusting and cleaning each week.

When you see how truly easy and inexpensive this is to creat your own, you are going to wonder how you missed the boat on creating your own right now.

The fun part with vinegar is there are so many different kinds. There is regular white vinegar, of course, apple cider vinegar, red and white wine vinegar, sherry, champagne, and balsamic vinegar, and lets not forget malt vinegar too.

The joyful thing about vinegars is their acidity, which helps leach the flavors and nutrients from herbs and fruits and makes the flavors and scents available in fun ways.

So instead of paying pricey amounts for a lovely vinegar (not that there’s anything wrong with a French champagne vinegar for preparing a special meal) here is how to make your own, for every day use. If you have your own garden, or herb patch, this is one more way to preserve the flavors of summer for the winter months.

Preparation

• Clean glass jar with lid. Remember, vinegar is an acid, and can leach things like metals and plastics.
• Your vinegar of choice-you can pick your favorite flavors and go as organic as you like when making your own.
• Your favorite herbs and citruses or other fruits
• A notebook to record what you’ve done (so if you really like a certain combination, you can repeat it next year).

Making your infused vinegar

• Two cups of your favorite herb, or a combination of herbs, washed and drained.
• Stuff them into the jar and cover with your vinegar of choice.
• Cover and store in a dark cool place, and shake every day for a month.
• Strain through a coffee filter and into a jar and label.

That, my friends, is it.

Play around with different herb combinations, or herb and citrus. Or fruits.

Think about mixing fresh thyme with orange. Or rosemary with grapefruit. Basil and cherry. Or how about raspberry vinegar?

Salad Dressing

You can make your own salad dressing with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper with these vinegars. 

• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste
• 1 tsp dijon mustard or your favorite prepared mustard.
• Mix in a bowl, and then whisk in 1/8 cup olive oil, adding slowly while whisking.
• You can finely chop and add any herbs you may wish at the moment too.

Household Cleaning

Take a quarter cup of your strained vinegar and add it to a spray bottle, and fill it with water. Add two or three drops of dish soap and shake to mix.

 

You can use this for cleaning around the house. (test a small patch first on fine surfaces and don’t use on marble).

For cleaning windows, add 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol before adding water and omit the dish soap. This makes a great streak-free cleaner for shiny windows, especially if you use a squeegee to finish them off!

Does this help you out at all with simplifying your household cleaning and grocery bills? Leave me a comment below if this is an eye-opener for you. Remember, if we want to stop giving big businesses our money, buying a bunch of different cleaning products is one area it’s easy to save on. We really don’t need 90% of what we get in this department!