Recipes from Kasia: Fermented Herbal Vinegar + Herbal Liqueur

In my article about my time with Kasia at her homestead near Krakow, I promised to share her recipes for Fermented Herbal Vinegar and Herbal Liqueur (a boozy herbal syrup).

After ten years of preparing herbal vinegars and syrups, I’ve gotten a bit stuck in my ways. I loved shaking things up and helping Kasia with these preparations using her methods.

Image: Fermenting herbal vinegars on Kasia's counter.

Fermented Herbal Vinegar

When I make herbal vinegar, I typically steep herbs in store-bought vinegar for a couple of weeks. After I strain out the herbs, I’ve got an “infused vinegar.” Since store-bought vinegars are often pasteurized, the living organisms that created the vinegar by fermentation are no longer present.

Photo: Kasia putting marigold flowers into a jar for fermented vinegar.

When Kasia makes herbal vinegar, she includes the fermentation process to create vinegar from scratch. Her finished vinegars are alive with probiotic compounds, adding extra digestive benefit.

Below are just a few of the herbal vinegars Kasia was fermenting while I was there:

• rose (Rosa rugosa, but any un-sprayed rose species is edible)

• calendula (Calendula officinalis)

• marigold (Tagetes sp.)

• apples

• cherries

INGREDIENTS:

• Quart (1 L), half-gallon (1.9 L), or gallon (3.8 L) jar

• Water

• Fresh herb(s) or fruit of choice

• Finished vinegar (as a starter; not required)

• White sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Fill your jar 1/3 of the way with fruit or herbs. In a saucepan, warm and dissolve the appropriate amount of sugar in water:

If you’re using fruit: 4 Tbsp sugar per quart/liter of water.

If you’re using leaves and/or flowers: 5 Tbsp sugar per quart/liter of water.

Let the sugar water cool.

If you’re adding finished vinegar as a starter: Add 1/4 cup (59 mL) vinegar per quart/liter to your jar. Top off jar with sugar water. Cap jar with a lid.

Twice daily, open the lid and stir your concoction. Once the herbs or fruit sink to the bottom, store in a cool dark place; stirring is optional at this point. At 6 months, the vinegar is “mature” for use. Kasia says it’s pretty good after 3 months, and she sometimes starts using it early.

After making many batches of vinegar, Kasia still ends up with the occasional funky and unusable batch. Don’t be discouraged if you lose a batch; the ingredients are cheap and it’s worth the experiment!

Photo: Stirring Kasia's herbal vinegars twice daily. The rose petal vinegar smells incredible!

Herbal Liqueur (Boozy Herbal Syrup)

Kasia used mullein flowers in her herbal syrup. I sampled the final product from last year and it tasted like plums. Yum!

This herbal syrup can be used recreationally and/or as a remedy. Enjoy it as an after-dinner liqueur, or take a teaspoon a few times a day when you have a respiratory infection.

I often use less refined sugar in baking (ex. turbinado or “raw” cane sugar), but I found that this recipe didn’t work with these products. I suggest sticking with white sugar; I use an organic product. Feel free to experiment with other herbs in your garden. Anise hyssop makes a delicious liqueur!

INGREDIENTS:

• Fresh mullein flowers (or other fresh herb flowers or leaves)

• sugar

• vodka or brandy

DIRECTIONS:

Kasia completes this process without measuring. Add a layer of fresh herbs to the bottom of a pint jar, around 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. Add enough sugar to coat the top layer of herbs. Repeat until you’ve used up your herb harvest, or until the jar is full.

Cap jar with lid and place in a sunny window. The sugar will slowly “melt” as water from the herbs is released. Feel free to add more herb and sugar to the jar as the mixture melts and “shrinks.”

Once all of the sugar has “melted” into the liquid solution, open the jar and pour as much liquid as possible into a fresh jar. Reserve the herbs in the first jar.

Top off herbs with liquor until just covered. Cap jar and let steep one week in a dark place.

After one week, strain liquid out of the herbs and retain the liquid; herbs can be composted.

Combine herb-infused liquor with sugar water at a ratio of roughly 1:1. Enjoy!

This concoction is shelf-stable at room temperature.