These vinegars will be found very useful, at times when the articles with which they are flavoured cannot be conveniently procured. Care should be taken to have the bottles that contain them accurately labelled, very tightly corked, and kept in a dry place. The vinegar used for these purposes should be of the very best sort.
Tarragon should be gathered on a dry day, just before the plant flowers. Pick the green leaves from the stalks, and dry them a little before the fire. Then put them into a wide-mouthed stone jar, and cover them with the best vinegar, filling up the jar. Let it steep fourteen days, and then strain it through a flannel bag. Pour it through a funnel into half-pint bottles, and cork them well.
Is made precisely in the same manner; also those of green mint, and sweet marjoram.
Pound two ounces of celery seed in a mortar, and steep it for a fortnight in a quart of vinegar. Then strain and bottle it.
Nearly fill a wide-mouthed bottle with the fresh green leaves of burnet, cover them with vinegar, and let them steep two weeks. Then strain off the vinegar, wash the bottle, put in a fresh supply of burnet leaves, pour the same vinegar over them, and let it infuse a fortnight longer. Then strain it again and it will be fit for use. The flavour will exactly resemble that of cucumbers.
Make a quart of the best vinegar boiling hot, and pour it on four ounces of scraped horseradish. Let it stand a week, then strain it off, renew the horseradish, adding the same vinegar cold, and let it infuse a week longer, straining it again at the last.
Peel and chop fine four ounces of shalots, or small button onions. Pour on them a quart of the best vinegar, and let them steep a fortnight; then strain and bottle it.
Make garlic vinegar in the same manner; using but two ounces of garlic to a quart of vinegar. Two or three drops will be sufficient to impart a garlic taste to a pint of gravy or sauce. More will be offensive. The cook should be cautioned to use it very sparingly, as to many persons it is extremely disagreeable.
Take a hundred red chillies or capsicums, fresh gathered; cut them into small pieces and infuse them for a fortnight in a quart of the best vinegar, shaking the bottle every day. Then strain it.