day 1
29 July 2011: based on a successful experiment conducted by olddaysoldways where she made vinegar out of pineapple and strawberry scraps i attempted to replicate the findings using the same methodology but using pear scraps..
day 10
8 August 2011: as you can see in figure 1 below the pear, water and sugar mix had a number of bubbles on the surface which suggests fermentation as a result of the presence of wild yeast..
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| figure 1 |
day 17
15 august 2011: the mixture had ceased fermenting and so the mixture was strained through muslin into a clean bowl (see figure 2); at this stage it was noted that the mixture had a stringy (mucilaginous) appearance and an acidic odour..as per olddaysoldways recommendation it was then covered and left to mature for a couple of weeks..
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| figure 2 |
day 18
16 august: checking on the mixture the next day activity was again noted in the form of small surface bubbles..see figure 3..according to written communication with olddaysoldways this was an anomalous finding..
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| figure 3 |
day 21
18 august 2001: all bubbling activity had ceased and the mixture was tasted where the presence of a non pear like vinegar flavour was determined..upon bottling the mixture still had a slightly stringy appearance..
25 august 2001: today..one week after the mixture was bottled a white sediment has formed and the vinegar is free of stringiness and it has a distinct acidic odour and taste..mission accomplished! :)
Great job (and what patience)! I used to love fermenting fruit in science class at school - especially the smell.
ReplyDeleteWhat a process--it's a beautiful color! My grandma always called the stringy mass 'mother of vinegar'--apparently it can be part of the vinegar process, but isn't always present. I'll be interested to hear how you use the finished product!
ReplyDeletethanks keely..unfortunately there were no fermenting fruit experiments in my science classes only cutting up frogs and hearts and boiling things in test tubes..
ReplyDeletethat's so good to know about the 'mother of vinegar' wendy..i did a bit of an online vinegar search about the stringy stuff and there was mention of the 'mother' but she seemed to only be found on the bottom of bottles..but now i'm wondering whether what i had was part of her formation..it did put me off a bit and i was a tad concerned about food safety issues but now i feel less worried and happy that i have a 'mother'..thanks
So interesting! I wanted to make limoncello once but backed out because bottling sounded difficult. This is so cool. :)
ReplyDeletewell there you go! That's fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWell done! I'm glad it was a success!
ReplyDeletethanks vicky & cityhippyfarmgirl & nqn
ReplyDelete