Raspberry Spice Vinegar

OK,  I know I've been posting a lot about raspberries.  It's only because I have been knee-deep in them for the last several weeks.  My Canby reds are just about done and my Fall Golds are starting up.  Thus, you may see a few gold ones popping up in the photos.  Even though I am glad the harvest is slowing down...what to do with the stragglers when the canes look like this?

The berries taste great, they just don't look as pretty as the ones I picked at the beginning of the harvest.  Some are sunburned, some are very small, some get a bit smashed in the picking bucket and there aren't enough from the morning's picking to make many recipes.  So we eat them out of hand or on our cereal or...

I make some raspberry vinegar from the gleanings. 

 Have you ever purchased raspberry vinegar in a specialty store?  It's expensive to buy, but very affordable if you make it at home.
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You'll need a non-reactive sauce pan.  Stainless steel or enamel covered pans like my white one (see photo below) will do fine.  Vinegar reacts with aluminum or some of the other metals and turns a funny color as well as produces bad flavors.  Prepare the vinegar by following the recipe below. 

If I am giving the vinegar as a gift, I will let the vinegar sit in a quart jar for a few weeks and then remove the old spices.  I then pour it into a decorative bottle with a few fresh raspberries and a just few new spices.  You can also water bath can this vinegar in small jars for later use.

Decorate the outside of the bottle with a pretty ingredient label or tag which identifies what's in the bottle and some pretty raffia or ribbon.  You can tuck a sprig of fresh or silk berries into whatever you tied around the bottle neck. 

This makes a great teacher gift or a nice inexpensive hostess gift.  Or you can always do what I do and just display a pretty red bottle of the raspberry vinegar on your kitchen counter or shelf.  Keep a bottle or two for yourself because it makes VERY GOOD vinaigrette and is lovely splashed over fresh fruit.   There are endless uses for this colorful, pretty concoction.  Let your creative juices flow.

Red Raspberry Spice Vinegar

1 pint of fresh raspberries, washed, drained, and picked clean of debris

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1 quart of good red wine vinegar

2-6inch pieces of stick cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of whole allspice berries

2 Tablespoons of whole cloves

In a non-reactive saucepan stir the raspberries, sugar and vinegar together.  Bring to a simmer and cook for at least 30 minutes.  Remove from the heat and cool and cover.  Let the berry mixture sit at least 8 hours on the counter.  Strain the vinegar through a water dampened coffee filter set inside a strainer over a clean bowl.  Let the liquid drip slowly without forcing, so the vinegar will be clear.  It may take a while for all the liquid to drip through the filter.  Discard the solids.

Put the whole spices into a clean bottle that has a lid or cork. Pour the vinegar over and cap.  Let the vinegar steep in the spices for at least one week before using.

This is my submission to Two for Tuesdays this week.  See what others cooked up here.http://amoderatelife.com/2010/07/two-for-tuesday-recipe-blog-hop-volume-7/