It's very difficult to convey the beauty of this vinegar in amateur photos taken by a rather lazy photographer. Suffice it to say that it is the most scrumptious-looking potion I've ever seen! In the sun, the colour is dramatic and the aroma is mouth-watering. It's a great (and very easy) alternative use for blackberries if, like me, you don't eat a lot of jam.
Use it in salad dressings, on pancakes, with tonic water in the summer or with hot water in the winter as a drink.
The recipe comes from Pam Corbin's great River Cottage Handbook on preserves, which I've written about previously.
1. Pick your blackberries - best picked on a dry day to catch the full flavour.
2. Put the blackberries in a large bowl and squish them a bit, then cover them with cider vinegar. Cover with clingfilm and leave for five or six days, stirring occasionally. The vinegar will turn a beautiful deep claret colour.
3. Strain through muslin cloth or a jelly bag overnight. It's ok to squeeze the juice out of the bag to get as much as you can.
4. Measure the juice - for every 600ml of juice add 450g of sugar and put the whole lot in a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring till the sugar is dissolved, then boil gently for about 10 mins, remove any scum that rises to the top.
5. Cool, then pour into clean bottles. It will keep for a year at least.
2 comments:
Wow that sounds and looks incredible - how does it taste?
It's sweet and slightly vinegary all at the same time - I guess you could compare it with balsamic if you think the idea of a sweet vinegar is a bit weird.
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