Mix cider and honey, in the proportion of 1 lb. of honey to a gallon of cider, and let it stand in a vessel for some months, and vinegar will be produced so powerful, that water must be mixed with it for common use.

Scheele, a celebrated chymist, has recommended the following recipe: Take 6 spoonsful of good alcohol; to this, add 3 pints of milk, and put the mixture into vessels to be corked close. Vent must be given from time to time to the gas of fermentation. In the course of a month, this will produce very good vinegar.

Put into a barrel, of sufficient dimensions, a mixture composed of 41 wine pints of water, about 8 pints of whiskey, (l’eau de vin de grain) about 2 wine pints of yeast, and 2 pounds of charcoal, and place it in a proper situation for fermentation. At the end of four months a very good vinegar will be formed, as clear and as white as water.

This is made from weak malt liquor, brewed for the purpose; its various strength is, in England, denoted by numbers, from 18 to 24.

To every gallon of water put 1 lb. of coarse Lisbon sugar; let the mixture be boiled, and skimmed as long as any scum arises. Then let it be poured into proper vessels; and when it is as cool as beer, when worked, let a toast, rubbed over with yeast, be put to it. Let it work about 24 hours, and then put it into an iron-hooped cask, fixed either near a constant fire, or where the summer sun shines the greater part of the day; in this situation it should not be closely stopped up; but a tile, or something similar, should be laid on the bung-hole, to keep out the dust and insects. At the end of about three months (sometimes less) it will be clear and fit for use, and may be bottled off. The longer it is kept, after it is bottled, the better it will be. If the vessel containing the liquor is to be exposed to the sun’s heat, the best time to begin making it is in the month of April.

Take any sort of wine that has gone through fermentation, and put it into a cask that has had vinegar in it; then take some of the fruit or stalks of which the wine has been made, and put them wet into an open-headed cask in the sun, with a coarse cloth over the top of it, for six days—after which put them in the vinegar, and stir it well about—then put it in a warm place, if in winter, or if in summer, put it in a yard in the sun, with a slate over the bung. When the vinegar is sour enough and fine, rack it off into a clean sour cask, and bung it up; then put it in the cellar for use. Those wines that contain the most mucilage are fittest for the purpose.

The lees of pricked wine are also a very proper ingredient in vinegar.

To each gallon of water add 2 lbs. of brown sugar, and a little yeast; leave it exposed to the sun for six months, in a vessel slightly stopped.

Bruise the gooseberries, when ripe, and to every quart put three quarts of water; stir them well together, and let the whole stand for 24 hours, then strain it through a canvas bag.

To every gallon of liquor add 1 lb. of brown sugar, and stir them well together before they are put into the cask. Proceed in all other respects as before. This vinegar possesses a pleasant taste and smell; but raspberry vinegar, which may be made on the same plan, is far superior in these respects. The raspberries are not required to be of the best sort, still, they should be ripe and well flavoured.

This is made in the same way as that from gooseberries, only pick off the currants from the stalks.

To 15 quarts of water put 6 lbs. of brown sugar; let it boil ten minutes, and take off the scum: pour on it half a peck of primroses; before it is quite cold, put in a little fresh yeast, and let it work in a warm place all night; put it in a barrel in the kitchen, and when done working, close the barrel, still keeping it in a warm place.

After making raisin wine, lay the pressed raisins in a heap to heat, then to each cwt. put 15 gallons of water, and a little yeast.

The poorest sort of cider will serve for vinegar, in managing which proceed thus:—

First draw off the cider into a cask that has had vinegar in it before; then put some of the apples that have been pressed into it, set the whole in the sun, and in a week or nine days it may be drawn off into another cask.—This is a good table vinegar.

Take the skins of raisins after they have been used in making wine, and pour three times their own quantity of boiling water on them; stir them well about, and then set the cask in a warm place, close covered, and the liquor, in a week, when drawn off from its sediment, put into another cask, and well bunged down, will be a good vinegar for the table.

When honey is extracted from the combs, by means of pressure, take the whole mass, break and separate it, and into each tub or vessel, put one part of combs and two of water; place them in the sun, or in a warm place, and cover them with cloths. Fermentation takes place in a few days, and continues from 8 to 12 days, according to the higher or lower temperature of the situation in which the operation is carried on. During the fermentation, stir the matter from time to time, and press it down with the hands, that it may be perfectly soaked. When the fermentation is over, put the matter to drain upon sieves or strainers. At the bottom of the vessels will be found a yellow liquor, which must be thrown away, because it would soon contract a disagreeable smell, which it would communicate to the vinegar. Then wash the tubs, put into them the water separated from the other matter; it immediately begins to turn sour; when the tubs must be again covered with cloths, and kept moderately warm. A pellicle, or skin, is formed on their surface, beneath which the vinegar acquires strength; in a month’s time it begins to be sharp; it must be left standing a little longer, and then put into a cask, of which the bung-hole is left open. It may then be used like any other vinegar.

Suffer it to be repeatedly frozen, and separate the upper cake of ice, or water, from it.

All vinegars owe their principal strength to the acetic acid they contain; but the vinegar of wine contains also tartar, a small portion of the malic acid, alcohol, and colouring matter; that of eider contains merely the malic acid, little or no alcohol, and a yellowish colouring matter.

Dry an ounce of either of the above flowers, (except the orange flowers, which will not bear drying,) for two days in the sun; then put them into a bottle, pour on them a pint of vinegar, closely stop the bottle, and infuse 15 days in moderate heat of the sun. Vinegars of any other flowers, as tarragon, &c. may be made in a similar manner.

This is obtained from vinegar by distillation, rejecting the 4th or 8th part that comes over first, and avoiding its acquiring a burnt flavour.

Distilled vinegar is weaker than the common, but is used sometimes in pickles, where its want of colour is an advantage.

Obtained from wood distilled in large iron cylinders for the manufacture of charcoal for gunpowder; when rectified it is used for all the purposes of distilled vinegar.

Take of vitriol, calcined to whiteness, 1 lb.
sugar of lead, 10 drachms,

Rub together and distil.

Take of sugar of lead, 7 lbs.
oil of vitriol 4½ lbs.

Distil 2½ lbs. This is used to make aromatic vinegar.

Take of honey, 4 lbs.
very dry sand, 2 lbs.

Mix and put into a vessel that will hold five times as much; distil with a gentle heat a yellowish acid water: this acid greatly encourages the growth of hair.

Take of common salt, 3 lbs.
manganese, 1 lb.
oil of vitriol, 2 lbs.
water, 1 lb.

Distil, placing a sufficient quantity of water in the receiver.

This spirit is of a pale greenish yellow, and scarcely heavier than water. It bleaches linen, straw, and takes out fruit spots, iron moulds, or ink marks.