My 2 cents worth. Acetobacter is the critter that is responsible for
changing the alcohol to vinegar, and when making wine this is the
critter you want to avoid at all costs.

Surest way to make good vinegar is to buy a culture (mother) from
reputable vendor (homebrew supply stores carry it) or borrow a few
ounces from someone who has a culture going. The "Mother" is the most
disgusting looking thing you would ever see in your life, and it looks
obscene to say the least. There are different strains of
"acetobacter" that produce various flavors. I like Malt vinegar so
purchase a malt vinegar mother and use stale beer instead of wine.

You can make your own "mother" by putting single layer of very coarse
cheesecloth or screening over a jug of wine, and set it out on the
porch. Fruitflies, flies, other flying critters will come to try to
get into the bottle, but will be stopped by the screen. However, the
little "acetobacter" fall into the wine and start growing, as they
naturally populate the outside of the fruitfly and flies, and other
bugs.

The problem with this method is that although it works all the time,
you never know exactly which strainof the little bacterium or whatever
you are starting, although most always it will turn out OK. For a
particular flavor get a "mother" from a company specializing in
vinegars.

Commercial vinegar is made from Crude Oil, I would NEVER NEVER NEVER
drink vinegar made in a refinery (distilled white vinegar and most
commercial vinegars, flavored with laboratory chemicals).

Maybe someone from England can jump in here with more explicit
instructions, as they have some excellent Malt vinegars over there and
I have never been able to even come close to those with my
store-bought mothers. (a "Mother" would make the basis of a good
science fiction movie, as if you have ever seen one they are the stuff
mightmares are made of).

On a related subject,, I used to make sherry the way they do in
Europe, in an Estuffa (heated cabinet), and the yeast for this stuff
makes a "mother" also, and it makes a hard, crusty "mother" that is
just as obscene looking. I can't find the yeast anymore since Wine
Art went out of business many years ago (sherry flor yeast). The
homemade sherry was better than anything you could buy, could be made
out of just about anything (I used oranges), but it took some time to
enjoy.

Jim




On Sat, 06 Jan 2007 01:45:58 -0800, Reg > wrote:

>Peter Watson wrote:
>
>> On 4/1/07 10:21 AM, in article ,
>> "Goomba38" > wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Thank you for your reply.
>>>Here is the recipe: Aceto di vino, from Giulliano Bugialli's "Foods of
>>>Naples and Campania"
>>>
>>>2 slices white bread, crusts removed
>>>4 cups dry red wine
>>>
>>>Put the bread in a glass jar, then pour the wine over it. Place a piece
>>>of cheesecloth over the top of the jar and set the jar aside in a
>>>cabinet or on a countertop away from direct sunlight.
>>>
>>>Let the jar rest for about 25 days. in this period of time the bread
>>>will turn very dark in color and become almost gelatinous. This is the
>>>so called mother of the wine vinegar. Carefully drain and filter the
>>>wine that has become vinegar into a bowl., then pour into a bottle. The
>>>vinegar is now ready to be used.
>>>
>>>You can add more wine to the jar containing the mother of the vinegar.
>>>This time the process of changing the wine into vinegar will be much
>>>faster, about 1 week.
>>
>> I think that you will need to use sour dough bread if it is available near
>> you, but thr recipe sounds great and I am going to try it.
>
>You don't need to use sourdough, or bread made with
>any specific yeast. There's no live cultures left in
>bread (as there is in, for example, yoghurt). It all
>dies off during baking.