Red Wine Vinegar Recipe

Red wine vinegar is an excellent way to boost the flavor of a variety of foods. Popularly used in salad dressings, it's also fabulous in sauces, stews, and other dishes. While you can buy it at the store, you'll find that homemade red wine vinegar has a more complex flavor, and it's one of the easiest fermented ingredients you can make from scratch.

While balsamic vinegar is made with unfermented grape juice left to age for over a decade, red wine vinegar begins with grape-based wine. The easiest way to make red wine vinegar (or simply red vinegar) at home is to mix red wine with raw, unpasteurized vinegar. The process uses the wine's residual sugars to aid in the fermentation process.

An inexpensive bottle of wine is good for this vinegar recipe, though you will want something you enjoy to make the best-tasting vinegar. For the best results and storage, choose a wine between 10 percent and 11 percent alcohol by volume; the finished vinegar will have just a trace amount of alcohol. This is also an excellent use for leftover wine.

We use raw apple cider vinegar in this recipe since it includes the "mother," a bacteria called Mycoderma aceti, which drastically shortens the fermentation time. That live starter transforms alcohol into acetic acid and creates vinegar. However, with more time, you can also make red wine vinegar, and your own "mother", by using equal parts of white vinegar and red wine.

With these two ingredients on hand, you'll simply pour them into a large glass container, cover it with cheesecloth so it is exposed to oxygen, then wait. The slimy-looking mother will grow in about two weeks, and the vinegar will get a sharp sour smell and taste. When that happens, your red wine vinegar is ready to use in your favorite recipes.