{Recipe} Blackberry Vinegar

We have a huge thorny blackberry bush which is growing on one of the water tanks. It is a weed and needs to go, but we have put off getting rid of it until it finishes fruiting. At the moment we are getting about 500g every couple of days, and that’s only the berries we can reach easily. Toby is in heaven. He would happily sit and eat berries all day.

Despite Toby’s berry love, there are too many for us to eat, so I am on the lookout for ideas to make with them. So far I have cooked them up and made a couple of jars of dessert sauce to drizzle over ice cream (my father in law loved that one), Country Boy made an amazing apple and blackberry pie, and I have put some in the freezer for later.

I was flicking through Stephanie Alexander’s “Cooks Companion” when I saw a recipe for raspberry vinegar. I love to use fruit vinegar to dress salads. I have previously bought a raspberry vinegar and a cherry vinegar, but am almost out of them.

If you follow my blog at all, you will know I don’t tend to follow recipes exactly (I can’t remember when I last did). So I thought I would try Blackberry Vinegar.

Ingredients
250g blackberries (I imagine any type of berry would be OK – use frozen if you can’t find fresh)
250ml white wine vinegar
250g caster sugar

Method
1. In a large bowl, mash the berries with a fork (avoid using plastic as it will stain it, and don’t use aluminium because it reacts with the berries and vinegar).
2. Pour the white wine vinegar over the top. Cover and sit over night to allow the flavour to develop.
3. Strain through a fine sieve – use the back of a spoon to really mash all the goodness out.

4. Add in sugar and stir.
5. Place into a large/ thick jar, and place the in a saucepan of water filled to 2/3 the height of the jar.
6. Slowly bring to the simmer.
7. Simmer for 1 hour.
8. Pour into a sterilized bottle and seal.
9. Store in a cool dark place (i.e. your pantry).

The vinegar comes out beautifully thick and syrupy. I imagine it would be delicious with some good olive oil on a salad or even just with some quality bread to dip in to it.

Stephanie Alexander suggested putting a slurp of her raspberry vinegar into soda water. I took the same idea and put a slurp into some lemonade. It tastes pretty good (my girls gulped it down) and looks so pretty too!