How to Make Spiced Vinegar: the DIY Method for Spiced Vinegar, Perfect to Season Your Salads!

Salads are one of the most consumed, staple dishes prepared in spring and summer – after all, May is National Salad Month – because they're fresh, easy to toss together, quick and nutritious and tasty. Many ingredients can be paired together inside of a salad bowl, ranging from savory, tangy ingredients, to sweeter foods, creating nice contrasts and pairings that will have you reaching for more. But the real secret ingredient of a salad is the dressing: that'll either make or do your salad. If you're looking for a gourmet dressing for your salad, look no further! We have, here, a spiced vinegar that will elevate your salad to a gourmet course – and that can also be used for other main dishes, in case you're feeling fancy and adventurous!

What is Spiced Vinegar Made Of?

This homemade spiced vinegar is a simple, delicious and fragrant condiment, perfect for giving a gourmet touch to your salads – or even other dishes, according to your free will and your taste buds. Our version is made with red onion, garlic, chilies, peppercorns, salt and sugar, but you can choose to enrich it with the ingredients you prefer. Some alternatives may include rosemary for an elegant twist, or mint and chives for an added freshness. In case you're feeling particularly fancy, you can try your hand at edible flowers for a delicate touch; if, instead, you want to add a citrusy freshness to your salads and dishes, you can try adding lemon peels, or other types of fruit and berries for an added sweetness.

In addition, you can use the type of vinegar you prefer: from those with a more delicate flavor, such as rice or white wine vinegar or even apple vinegar, to more pungent and strong ones, such as apple, beer or red wine vinegar.  The secret to obtain a vinegar with an intense and aromatic flavor is to wait for the right infusing times: 1 to 2 weeks on average.

How to Prepare Our Spiced Vinegar

The first thing to do is prepare all the ingredients you'll be using to infuse the vinegar: this means cutting the red onions into thin slices, cleaning the garlic and dissolving the sugar and coarse salt in the vinegar. In the meantime, you're going to need an airtight container or glass bottle, where you're going to pour the red onion, the garlic, the chili peppers and the peppercorns. Once you have all your ingredients ready, you're going to pour the vinegar into the bottle and fill it up to the neck.

The vinegar should then be left to infuse for at least a week, if not 2. You're going to need to shake the container approximately every 2 days, to distribute the flavors evenly. Make sure to store the bottle in a dry place and away from sunlight, which could overheat the container and alter the properties of the seasoning. After the first 3 days of infusing have passed, you'll be able to taste and smell the various spices in the vinegar, but wait at least 5 days to get a stronger and more intense flavor. Before using it, remember to filter it through a fine mesh strainer.

How Many Variants of Spiced Vinegar Exist?

Flavored vinegar is a condiment that is as simple as it is versatile. In fact, you can customize this preparation according to your tastes, adding aromatic herbs, spices, flowers, but also fruit and citrus fruits to the vinegar. Furthermore, it is possible to choose between the different types of vinegar, to obtain condiments with a more or less strong flavor: from rice vinegar, delicate, to the classic white or red wine vinegar, through apple cider vinegar, to malt or beer vinegar, less available but with a very pleasant flavor.

Vinegar Flavored With Flowers, Spices and Aromatic Herbs

If you want to make a vinegar with an aromatic, pungent and strong flavor, start pouring 500 ml of rice, apple or white wine vinegar into a glass jar. Then, choose the aromas that will characterize the preparation. If you want to add flowers, use 50 grams of edible flowers, such as elderflower, lavender or rose hips. If you prefer aromatic herbs, however, you can insert 40 grams of them and opt for the most common ones – basil, oregano, chives, rosemary, sage, parsley and thyme – or for those with a stronger flavor such as tarragon, coriander, lemon balm, marjoram and mint. Finally, you can complement the vinegar with spices: not only chilies and pepper, but also cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks or fennel seeds.

Vinegar Flavored With Fruit

To give the vinegar a fresh flavor, add 200 grams of fruit, choosing from blackberries, raspberries, currants and pomegranate seeds. Leave to infuse for 2 weeks, in a cool, dry place. After the indicated time, filter the vinegar through a fine-mesh strainer. Finally, squeeze the fruit juice into the vinegar. To make it even more summery, add some fresh mint leaves.

Citrus Flavored Vinegar

Citrus flavored vinegar is a delicious and fragrant condiment, perfect for flavoring even the simplest salads. To prepare it, pour 500 ml of vinegar into a glass bottle and add the citrus fruits you like most, choosing between 2 lemons, 1 orange, 1 citron, 1 grapefruit, 3 mandarins or a mix of the above. Leave the mixture to infuse for 2 weeks and finally filter it through a strainer.

Additional Tips

• To prepare flavored vinegar, we recommend using only a glass container. The latter, in fact, does not alter the properties of the seasoning while other materials, such as plastic for example, could modify its characteristics.
• If you prepare fruit-flavored vinegar, you can also dissolve 1 tablespoon of it in ice water: you will get a thirst-quenching drink, perfect for summer.