Instructions: You can use a combination of herbs, or a single herb depending on what you like. Choose your herbs, bruise or crush or crumple and put them in a jar, add crushed garlic, grated fresh peppercorns etc. Heat white wine vinegar to boiling and pour over the herbs, screw on the lid and let set at room temp for 2 days. Taste to see if the flavors are right (a drop on a slice of bread works well.) Strain the vinegar thru a coffee filter. Put a few sprigs of fresh herbs in your bottles of choice, add a clove or so of garlic, maybe a couple of whole chili peppers for color. Add the filtered vinegar, decorate the bottle. Presto a wonderful gift.

Some combination ideas.

Thyme, Lemon Peel, and Black Pepper
1 large sprig of thyme
1 long spiral of lemon peel
2 C white wine vinegar
Three-Peppercorn Vinegar
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon white peppercorns
1 teaspoon green peppercorns(from a jar or can)

Bring the vinegar to a boil, remove from heat, add the black and white peppercorns. Let sit till cool, then pour into your bottles, dividing the peppercorns evenly. Now add the green peppercorns. Store for 2-3 weeks before using.

This makes a beautiful presentation!

Provencal Vinegar
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1 small bay leaf
1 large clove of garlic, peeled
1 strip of orange peel about 1" by 4"
1 pint of white wine vinegar

Put all seasonings in bottle, add vinegar. Seal. Store for a month before using. Shake every day or so.

Note: I have crammed a lot of herbs peppercorns, chilis, garlic, etc into a quart sized bottle and filled it with vinegar, used the vinegar and added more white vinegar and it still had wonderful flavor.

Note from Kaylin of RF4RP: Be sure to use safe food handling practices when making flavored vinegars. They should always be stored in a refrigerator, and should only be kept for a safe amount of time. If you have any questions about the safety of this or any other recipe you plan to use, a good resource is always your County Extension Office. [Spike says "amen" to that!]

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