Fermented peach vinegar tonic
When I hopped on board Food in Jars’ DIY Drink Week, I immediatly thought about vinegar. I’ve been on a home-fermented fruit vinegar tear lately, thanks to summer preserving scraps. When the peaches peaked a few weeks back, I ordered a box for teaching a pickled peach and peach jam workshop. We peeled and pitted peach after peach, and thanks to my inner depression-era granny, scraps and pits were duly saved. (I’d not make the vinegar with the pits, use those for the liqueur linked above!)
;)
I’m bringing up the tail for Drink Week with a break from my friends’ delicious boozy summer fun. This is a fermented tonic, good for your belly. Good also for marinades, salad dressings, a fridge pickle or anywhere else you’d splash some vinegar.
This recipe is based on the instruction and ratio for fruit scrap vinegar from Sandor Katz in his books Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation.
Fermented Peach Vinegar
1. Place peach peels and/or scraps from soft or bruised areas in a wide-based glass, ceramic bowl or food-grade plastic container. Avoid metal bowls or containers.
2. Dissolve 1/4 cup sugar in 1 quart water, pour over the scraps and repeat that ratio/process as many times as needed to give you one part scraps to two parts liquid. You can use honey here, but it will take longer for the fermentation to get started. The goal is to create a peach alcohol, which will happen when the yeasts on the fruit eat the sugar. The alcohol is then converted to acetic acid in the second round of fermentation. In the end of the process, you’re not really drinking/eating the sugar at all.
Cover the bowl with cheesecloth or a thin dishcloth. Stir the scraps daily to allow for the bubbling that will occur as the yeasts eat the sugar and to prevent surface mold from growing.
3. After one week, strain the scraps from the peach juice and pour the liquid back into the same bowl (you can wash it in between). Add a splash of a raw vinegar, like Bragg’s Apple Cider vinegar to help get the acetobacter started (if you don’t have any on hand, then omit it entirely). Cover again and let sit for another two weeks—stirring every few days at first and then swirling the bowl gently as the ‘mother’ forms on the surface of the liquid.
;)
Layers of the ‘mother’ sinking after sitting on the surface for about a week
The vinegar is finished when it smells and tastes like vinegar, around the end of the two-weeks.
4.Pour the vinegar (and ‘mother’) into a large jar and cap tightly. Store at room temperature, where it will keep indefinitely. The vinegar will age nicely and develop a more complex flavor. I drop the mother from various flavored vinegars right into new batches, which helps things get going faster and smoother (though it’s not necessary, since the mother forms itself and reproduces herself anyway).
;)
The ‘mother’ about to slide into the jar for shelf storage
To make the tonic beverage
Place in an 8-oz glass:
2 Tbs peach vinegar
1/2 tsp agave (or maple syrup or any preferred sweetener),
and fill the rest of the way with cold club soda.
;)
Read about the benefits of raw, fermented vinegar here, sip your tonic and feel good about yourself!
Beverages, Fermentation, Fruit, Preserved Foods: Savory, Recipes, Summer
Reader Comments (36)
Hi Kate, I've read all of your posts on vinegar making, and I have made pear scrap vinegar twice in huge batches (~4 gallons each time). I'm in the midst of making peach scrap vinegar (about 4 gallons, from over 100 pounds of peaches), and I'm in the stage where it's strained and I'm waiting for the mother to form. However, from what I've read/seen in photos, I have a yeast colony on top, but that is getting moldy! It's white but with green patches. Any advice? Should I skim it off? Before the formation of this thick covering (it's not the mother yet, much more wrinkly and with the green mold) it was vinegar (tasted great!). I stirred it daily the first few days and now have let it just sit for a fe days. I'm worried I'm going to lose the whole batch. This never happened with my pear vinegar. Any advice welcome, thank you!
Liz, not to worry that has happened to me occasionally too. Yes, just skim it off to the best of your ability and give it a swirl every other day to let the vinegar surface wash over any future yeasts trying to colonize. The mother is hearty and will form even with some disturbance. Keep me posted!
How much time is necessary if using honey?
I just strained the fruit out of the liquid and added the raw acv two days ago. This morning I noticed that I have white sediment (mold?) on top of the liquid. The liquid tastes like an early stage of vinegar but has low acidity at this stage--I am concerned about the sediment and that it might spoil my entire batch. Any idea what it might be and what I can do to safe my vinegar?
Vet, I'm not sure as I've never used honey personally. You'll have to check back in to let me know how long it takes to form the alcohol stage!
Dee, search the blog for the strawberry vinegar post and I'm sure you'll find that the initial sediment you see forming is the beginnings of the mother forming (I have some troubleshooting images in that post). Let it hang out, maybe swirl the container periodically to get liquid to slosh over the top of that sediment/film. Your vinegar is still totally safe!
Hi there! I've made several batches of apple scrap vinegar and they've turned out great! This time, though, I accidentally forgot to strain out my apple scraps (it's probably been about a month now) and there is a thick/white mother-ish blob forming on top... It looking more like a kombucha scoby than the vinegar mother. Do you have experience with this/know if it's okay? Thanks! Lacey
Hey Lacey, I'm guessing all is ok and that by now you've strained the scraps out. It may just take a little more time to fully convert to vinegar, but the scoby size/shape is not a concern! Let me know how it turns out!
Hey! I am wondering if it matters if the scraps are blanched are not. I am making pickled peaches this weekend and usually blanch them, will it affect the vinegar if I blanch the peaches first?
Hi Delaney,
Sorry for the delay in response, I was wrapping up the Austin Fermentation Festival! I have successfully made vinegars from fruits I've blanched or even milled in a food mill so if you decided to go ahead your vinegar should turn out just fine.
Really enjoyed reading how to make Fermented Peach Vinegar. The questions and answers really helped me in learning what to do and what not to do. Thank you Kate.
Hi, What is the mother? and what do you do with the mother after wards? is it the same as the kombucha mother?