Basil Vinegar

This is how I learned to make Basil Vinegar from the Franklin Springs Homestead Blessings Herbs DVD with the West Ladies.  It made a wonderfully yummy vinegar a few weeks ago so I thought I'd share with you when making this next batch. 

The West Ladies' made their batches in quart size canning jars, I used pint jars since I didn't have much vinegar to use.  It is so easy...

 You will need basil which has been washed and dried, a mild vinegar such as white wine vinegar or rice vinegar (not seasoned rice vinegar, which contains sugar).  I had rice vinegar on hand and it worked very well.  The West Ladies' used white wine vinegar.

 Fill a clean jar with basil which has been torn to facilitate the vinegar absorbing flavor.

"Bruise" your basil a bit if you want, I used the end of a wooden spoon.

Fill the jar with vinegar and if you are using a metal lid, slip plastic between the lid and the jar.  The vinegar will react to metal.  As you can see here, I just slipped a sandwich bag over the Ball jar before putting the lid on it.

Place the jar in a place where it does not get direct light but where you can see it to shake a couple times a day.  At the end of two weeks (or longer), remove basil by straining the vinegar into another jar or (as I was able to do) just removing the basil from the jar.  It came out very easily and looked so pretty, as you can see in the first picture above (which is the vinegar I made previously).

You can pour the vinegar into a pretty glass container with a cork to give as a gift.  I had a couple plastic lids left from a previous project so I just placed one of them on the Ball jar and kept it in the original container with a pretty label.

I'm thinking of trying this with lemon verbena and seeing how it turns out.