From the Kitchen: Grape Expectations
One of the earliest perennial plants that we planted here at Burkett Farm were grapes. Muscadines (and their cousins, scuppernongs) love to grow here in our area of the Piedmont, and our vineyard produces an impressive amount of fruit each September.
Muscadines are polarizing, though - with thick skins and seeds, they make for an inconvenient eating experience; the process of removing their seeds can seem tedious to anyone used to the seedless varieties.
Nonetheless, with a new demonstration kitchen to break in, we diverted a small portion of our harvest to try out a few preservation techniques.
Muscadine Vinegar
You can make vinegar from pretty much any kind of fruit or fruit scrap, but grapes make a frequent base, and for good reason - high acid, high sugar, and plenty of natural yeast makes them the ideal vinegar candidate.
We didn’t have a vinegar mother, so we used Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider vinegar to get our batch going.
Into a half gallon mason jar, we combined 2 pounds grapes (we scored their vine ends with an X to help promote fermentation and flavor infusion), 2/3 cup organic cane sugar, 1 cup apple cider vinegar (you must use Bragg’s or another unpasteurized option with the mother). We filled with water to cover the fruit, and then covered the lid of the jar with cheesecloth.
From there, it was a waiting game: for the first week, we stirred it daily. Then during week 2, we let it sit undisturbed. Week 3: we strained out the fruit - by this point, a gelatinous jelly-fish looking disc had formed - our vinegar mother - which we carefully removed and set to the side while straining off the grapes. Once we returned the vinegar liquid to the jar, we added the mother back too, to help with fermentation.
After this point, you can let the mixture continue to ferment, or start to use it. For the by-the-book type, you can measure the pH to ensure that you’re squarely in vinegar territory (instead of wine territory). Most vinegar clocks in around 2-3 pH.
Once you’ve reached the flavor you like, strain off the mother (you can save it, stored in a jar in water in the fridge, to reuse); and seal.
Use this vinegar to make a Muscadine Shrub Cocktail, or a Muscadine-Maple Vinaigrette for your next salad.
