Specialities Vinegar from Orléans

Vinegar is a wine whose alcohol was transformed in acetic acid by a germ called "mycoderma acéti". Vinegar acidity makes fatty substances'digestion easier. Vinegar tradition in the Orléans area dates back to the time when wines from Tours and Anjou were transported by boat on the Loire. Their quality wasn't always exceptional and transportation were slow. Sour wines were then unloaded in Orléans and transformed in vinegar.

There is only one vinegar factory left today in Orléans, the Maison Martin Pouret (that settled in the Faubourg Bannier in 1797), when the city still produced half of French vinegars in the beginning of the century.

Chose a container (vinegar bottle) in stoneware or in wood with a faucet in the bottom.

Mix 80% red wine with 20% red wine vinegar (if you're impatient, mix 50% wine with 50% vinegar). Use preferably a quality wine.

Close the vinegar opening with a lid or a cork. Put a gauze between the vinegar bottle and the lid or the cork. Leave the vinegar bottle in a place were temperature is between 20°C and 30°C.

Wait for 3 to 4 months. Little by little a grey cloud will cover the surface before becoming a gelatinous mass : "the vinegar mother". Don't move the vinegar bottle, vinegar wouldn't mature well if the mother fell in the bottom of the bottle.

If someone gives you a piece of mother you'll save time. In this case pour wine in the vinegar bottle and put the piece on surface. Wait for 1 to 2 months.

Don't take vinegar out by the top, you would damage the mother. Take it out by the bottom faucet. Replace the used vinegar by an equal quantity of wine, pouring it delicately by the top, paying attention to not break the mother. You can use bottle drops of good red wine, vinegar would be even better.