What is a 'Vinegar Plant'?

Answer 1

In centuries past a "vinegar plant" was a way for a thrifty housewife to easiily replenish her vinegar stores-- picture having your own little vinegar factory in your kitchen. The "mother"-- a cloudy, cobwebby like material found in unpasturized vinegar--formed from acetobacter bacteria-- was a key component of a vinegar plant. To make a vinegar plant, you'd feed the vinegar "mother" with some brown sugar, then in a separate vessel make a syrup of 2 quarts of boiling water, 1/2 lb. of treacle (golden syrup or molasses) and 1/2 pound of brown sugar. Once the syrup cooled, you would add the "mother" to it--transfer the mother from the surface of the vinegar that it was originally in to the surface of the syrup. You'd then put the syrup/mother in a covered jar or bottle and keep it in a warm cupboard for about six weeks. The film would rapidly grown and form a thick, gelatinous mass over the surface of the syrup, and in about six weeks time, the liquid would have become a reportedly excellent vinegar. At this point "... the vinegar plant [could then] be taken or divided into layers, or cut up into fragments, each piece of which if placed upon fresh syrup [would] rapidly grow and change the liquid into vinegar. The vinegar should be allowed to settle and be strained before it is used." (Most of this info is from a news clipping from the "Trenton State Gazette," 7 December 1870, pg. 1)