Mint Vinegar

Source

Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook, edited and translated by Charles Perry, recipe 3.7.

Question

Can mint and vinegar be distilled into something culinarily useful, and what does the short recipe leave unsaid?

Materials

• Fresh spearmint
• 5% white distilled vinegar
• Distillation apparatus
• Coffee filters

Method

• Harvested, chopped, and crushed spearmint.
• Mixed the mint with an equal part of white distilled vinegar.
• Distilled the mixture and collected distillate after boiling.
• Filtered and bottled the surviving distillate after equipment failure.

Observations

• The mixture boiled over and contaminated the collection vessel.
• A plugged vent caused pressure buildup and a containment failure.
• Coffee filters salvaged enough material to evaluate the result.

Result

• About four ounces survived.
• The vinegar stayed sharp but picked up cool, sweet, herbaceous mint notes.
• Also: do not plug the vent unless you want boiling mint vinegar distributed across the kitchen.

Uncertainty

• The accident interrupted yield and makes the final volume less useful as a process benchmark.
• The recipe gives very sparse equipment and procedure details.

References

• Perry, Charles, ed. and trans. Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook.
• Al-Hassani, S. T. S. 1001 Inventions.

Next

• Repeat with safer venting and more period-appropriate equipment.

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