by Tom Stobart
Very strong vinegars, such as essence of vinegar, spirit vinegar and distilled vinegar, are used to preserve very watery vegetables or in any other situation in which ordinary vinegar will become overdiluted. They are made by concentrating vinegars by distillation or by diluting strong synthetic acetic acid with water.
Vinegar is very easily made at home by putting wine (including home-made wine) or any other alcoholic liquid into a container preferably one with a tap at the bottom, and adding a piece of mother of vinegar to act as a starter- or at least putting some vinegar in to increase acidity Without this, the wine may go off before it has developed its own acid. The container should be kept in a warm kitchen. A skin of mother of vinegar will shortly form over the wine. lf this later becomes too white and thick, the top layer should be removed as it may block air getting to the underlying bacteria; the underlying pink skin, should be left. When it is ready, some of the vinegar can be run off (or siphoned off from the bottom if it is in a vessel with no tap) and more wine added. Vinegar exposed to the air will lose strength, because of bacteria which attack the acetic acid, so vinegar bottles should be well filled and corked.
In the past, it was quite usual for cooks to make sugar vinegar, something which can be done quite simply as follows: boil a suitable volume of water and add sugar at the rate of 150 g (5 oz) per 1 It (1¾ pt); within reason, quantity is not critical. You can use brown sugar or add molasses for flavour. Traditionally, the liquid, when cool, was put in a not quite full cask and a piece of toast covered in yeast was floated on top. A piece of brown paper was pasted over the bung hole and well pricked with a skewer to let in air. A barrel of sugar and water, if put down in April, would be vinegar ready for bottling by September. it would go more quickly if mother of vinegar was added.
Old directions for making mother of vinegar are to put 100 g (4 oz) sugar and 225 g (8 oz) treacle in 3½ It (6 pt) water, bring to the boil, then cool, cover and leave in a warm place for 6 weeks, if all goes well, mother of vinegar will form on top and can be used as a starter. Home-made vinegar is best pasteurized or brought almost to the boil before bottling.
Vinegar is often flavoured with various herbs and aromatics, the best known varieties being tarragon, chilli and garlic vinegars, but cucumber, basil, rose, violet, celery (with celery seed), cress or mustard (also with seed) and shallot vinegars are also made. To make any of these, it is necessary only to infuse the flavourings in a bottle of vinegar for some days. Some vinegars were made with quite complicated mixtures of herbs, garlic, onion and spices. They then verged on bottled sauces. Sweet fruit vinegars (such as raspberry, currant and gooseberry) were made to be diluted and used as refreshing summer drinks, but these have gone out of fashion.
Vinegar is preservative, because of its acetic acid content, which is why it is used in pickles and chutneys. As vinegars vary, it may be best to dilute them with a little water and not to slavishly follow recipes with full strength products. Tiny amounts of vinegar can improve some surprising things (yoghurt and strawberries are examples).
A Japanese sweet vinegar, which is used for seasoning rice, is called yamabukusu; a substitute can be made by adding 3 tablespoons sugar, 3 teaspoons, salt and a pinch of monosodium glutamate to a cup of vinegar.
[Vinegar – French: vinaigre German: Essig Italian: aceto Spanish: vinagre]
VINE LEAVES. The principal use for vine leaves is for stuffing to make the Levantine specialities known loosely as dolmodes (Greek), dolmas (Turkey) or mashi (Lebanon).Young vine leaves are used – the third and fourth from the tip are said to be best – as older ones are tough. (If gathering them yourself, be careful that the leaves have not been sprayed with chemicals.) Some vine leaves have a ragged, heart shape, but others are deeply indented and do not therefore make a good wrapping. The leaves of wild grapes can be used in the US. Vine leaves can be bought fresh throughout the summer in the markets of eastern Mediterranean countries. For winter, they are salted in barrels and sold loose. They may also be bought shrink-wrapped or canned- a 425 g (15 oz) can holds 40-50 leaves.
Before vine leaves can be stuffed, they must have the stalks removed and be blanched for a few minutes in boiling water until they are pliable. it is best to blanch a few at a time, as a large number of leaves dumped into the pot will stick together and the outer ones will be done before the heat reaches the inner ones. However, since vine leaves take 45-60 minutes to cook, over-blanching is merely an inconvenience. Canned vine leaves and salted leaves from the barrel need to be rinsed in warm water to remove salt before they are used.
There are many stuffings for dolmas – mixtures of meat, rice and vegetables, which often contain pine nuts. They may be flavoured with herbs such as parsley and mint. Some recipes are intended for eating hot; others cold. They are stuffed by laying them out with the veiny underside upwards, placing a small amount of stuffing near the stalk end, which is then folded over the stuffing. The side lobes of the leaf are folded inwards and the package is then rolled up so that the tip of the leaf is on the outside. Recipes for stuffed vine leaves, both hot and cold appear in Claudia Roden’s A Book of Middle Eastern Food (Penguin).
Vine leaves have a characteristic though mild taste and cannot be properly replaced by other leaves. Apart from being stuffed, they are sometimes fried in batter, cut up in salads, or used for wrapping small birds and lining pans in which other foods (such as mushrooms) are gently cooked. Many outdoor vines in Britain do not produce worthwhile grapes, and it would be better to use them to provide vine leaves. Once you become hooked on dolmas, especially for parties, it is difficult to do without them.
[Vine leaf – French: feuille de vigne German: Rebenblatt Italian: foglia di vite Spanish: pámpano]
VIOLET. The French name for a grey-brown sac-like tunicate (Microcosmus sulcatus), an animal that lives fastened to rocks at a depth of 30-100 m (100-300ft) in the Mediterranean. The soft, yellow insides are eagerly eaten raw by aficionados in France, Spain and Italy. The taste is strong, sour, marine and iodine-like. I spat mine out
[Violet – French: violet, figue de mer Italian: limone di mare, uovo di mare Spanish: probecho]
VIOLET. The Sweet violet (Viola odorata) is edible, as presumably, are other species, and the flowers may be bought preserved in sugar. They are mostly used as cake decorations. Violet is the main flavouring in the very sweet, violet-coloured liqueur known as parfait amour. The leaves and flowers are harmless and may be used for fun in salads. They are slightly laxative. Violets were used a lot in the 17th century, and recipes for violet syrups and sweetmeats abound in cookery books of the period.
*Orris may be used to provide imitation violet flavourings, for example in chocolate creams.
[Violet – French: violette German: Veilchen Italian: viola mammala Spanish: buglosa]
VIPER’S BUGLOSS (Echium vulgare) is a common European flower of the borage family. It is hairy, with blue flowers and pink buds. Like borage, it has a cucumber flavour and may be used for the same purpose – to decorate iced cups.
[Viper’s Bugloss – French: vipérine German: Natterkopf Italian: vipérino Spanish: bugloss]
VITAMINS are not ingredients we buy and stuff into the food – as yet – but they need to be watched, because cooks are responsible for the health of the people they feed and because, in cooking, vitamins can easily be destroyed, thrown away or lost. It was discovered long ago that scurvy on long voyages could be prevented by taking lime juice, and housewives accumulated a lot of know-how about keeping their families healthy on fresh food, but it was not until 1912 that the biochemist Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins put vitamins firmly on the map. Vitamins are organic substances of various sorts that the body cannot manufacture for itself but needs in small amounts in order to function properly. Originally, vitamins could not be identified by chemical names (although one, niacin, had actually been synthesized in the 19th century), and so they were known by the letters of the alphabet Later, some were found not to be one vitamin but several – in particula
r, vitamin B was split into B1, B2, B3, and B12. The whole series was called the B vitamin complex, because the vitamins did not work in isolation from each other, but were inter-related. As techniques improved, the chemical structure of the vitamins began to be worked out and, during the 1930s, many were synthesized (vitamin C, 1933; vitamin B2, 1934; vitamin D2, 1935; vitamin B1, 1936).AII the vitamins were eventually given chemical names, and some that had earlier been called vitamins were found to be inessential and so dropped. This accounts for the untidiness of the list today. Vitamins are now big business for pharmaceutical companies, which like us to swallow a lot of pills. Although a few people with inherited peculiarities may need more than average amounts of certain vitamins, a balanced diet generally provides enough to maintain good health without vitamin supplements. Any extra is usually just eliminated from the body and is a waste of cash. Cooks should be concerned to retain the vitamins in everyday dishes, but it is not always easy to know if cooking is damaging the vitamins. Only a few of the more important vitamins are dealt with below.
Vitamin A or retinol. Deficiency causes night blindness and later flaky ‘toad skin’, even wrinkles on the cornea of the eye, but risk of deficiency is slight in Europe or America. In cooking, retinol is fairly resistant to heat and, being fat soluble, is not dissolved out into the cooking water. It is, however, easily destroyed by light and by rancid fats.
The normal daily requirement for normal people is satisfied by as little as 10 g (⅓ oz) of liver, 40 g (1½ oz) old carrots or 75 g (3 oz) new carrots, 75 g (3 oz) spinach, margarine or butter, or 4 eggs. Cheese, milk, cream and apricots are also useful sources. Fish liver oils contain a lot of vitamins, particularly halibut liver oil, which contains 150 times as much as cod liver oil.
As vitamin A is stored in the body, one serving of liver, 100 g (4 oz), would cover a week’s requirement. Retinol is not excreted in the urine, and too much is toxic. The liver of sharks, whales and polar bears are reckoned to be dangerous because of their retinol content. Polar-bear liver is fantastically rich in retinol – but is nevertheless the first part eaten by Eskimos, who take it raw, and warm, from the kill. Carrots are not rich in retinol itself, but contain its precursor, carotene.
Vitamin B1 or thismine. Deficiency causes beri beri and nervous disorders; the risk is slight in those who eat a reasonable diet, as it occurs in most fresh foods, but alcoholics can suffer. They tend to eat badly and have an increased demand for this vitamin. Mild deficiency sometimes contributes to mental confusion in old people.
The normal daily requirement varies with the individual’s carbohydrate metabolism, because thiamine is concerned with the release of energy from glucose. Men usually require more than women, and the physically active more than those who lead sedentary lives. Thiamine requirements cannot be supplied by a single serving of any one food (except perhaps a massive amount of cod’s roe), but must come from a variety. Rich ones are wheat germ, Brazil nuts, unroasted peanuts and roasted pork, while oatmeal, bacon and eggs, kidney, liver and bread (both brown and white) would all make their contribution. Synthetic thiamine hydrochloride is often added to breakfast cereals, peanut butter and breads to replace that lost in the manufacture. lt may sometimes be added to such items as skimmed milk and bottled drinks. Thiamine is not stored (although there is some reserve in the body cells); as any excess of immediate requirements is lost in the urine, it is not toxic in excess. Thiamine is easily destroyed by heat in cooking, especially in the presence of an alkali, such as bicarbonate of soda. Also, being water soluble, it is easily dissolved out by cooking water. Even toasting a slice of bread destroys up to a third of the vitamin, and reheating or keeping food warm is exceedingly destructive.
Vitamin B2 of which riboflavin is an important component. Deficiency in adults is not marked by an obvious disease, but causes vague symptoms like sore tongue, cracks at the corners of the mouth and itching eyes. It stunts growth in children. Riboflavin is necessary for proper functioning of the muscles, so people doing hard physical work need it, athletes need it, and men usually need it more than women (they usually have bigger muscles), but as with all vitamins – B complex ones in particular- it is little use on its own without the others. The risk of deficiency is negligible in an averagely good diet. The normal daily requirement could come from one large serving of liver or kidneys, but cheese, milk, eggs and yeast extracts are also good sources.
In cooking, riboflavin is relatively stable to heat, but will be destroyed by an alkali like bicarbonate of soda. It is also soluble in water and will be leached out when food is boiled, so use the cooking water to make gravy and stock. Ultra-violet light rapidly destroys riboflavin, and milk in a bottle left in the sun or even under fluorescent light will lose its riboflavin content in a few hours.
Niacin or nicotinic acid has for long had no B number, but is an important member of the B-vitamin complex. Deficiency causes pellagra; the risk is small in people living on normally adequate diets, but may occur in alcoholics. Our normal daily requirement would be contained in one helping of liver or be made up from other meals. Good sources are liver, kidneys, sardines and other oily fish, peanuts, cheese, eggs, mushrooms, milk and pulses. Best of all are meat extracts, yeast extracts and wheat bran. Niacin is supplied to a significant extent by coffee and beer. Niacin is little affected by the heat of cooking, but is water soluble and some 40% may be lost from vegetables that are boiled in a lot of water. People got pellagra from a maize diet because they were poor and unable to afford meat, eggs or milk. Maize, unlike other cereals, lacks the amino acid, trytophan, which can be turned into niacin by the liver if vitamins B1, B2, and B6 are present.
Vitamin B12 or cyanocobalamin is used as a cure for pernicious anaemia, because the vitamin is concerned in the formation of red cells in the blood, although the disease is not caused by vitamin deficiency. The risk of a deficiency in the diet is more or less zero, except among Vegans – vegetarians who eat no food of animal origin, no milk, cheese or eggs.
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid. Serious deficiency causes scurvy; the breakdown of connective tissue proteins. First symptoms are easy bruising, bleeding and spongy gums, followed by loss of teeth, weak bones and internal haemorrhages. It is still uncertain what harm a slight deficiency might do. As early as 1601 it was discovered that lime juice prevented scurvy. although it took almost 200 years, until 1795, for lime juice to become a compulsory issue in the British navy, which as everyone knows caused Americans to give the British the name ‘lime juicers’ and then ‘limeys’ (though it: seems to have been lemon juice rather than lime juice that was actually issued.)
The normal daily requirement is uncertain, but most people eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables get enough. Common foods particularly rich in vitamin C are black currants and strawberries, watercress and green peppers, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Oranges and lemons are all right but not sensational, but apples, carrots, pears, bananas, plums, celery and beetroot are less good. The risk of deficiency is small, except among those who perhaps for dietary reasons (e.g. the Atkins diet) eat almost exclusively fish, fats, eggs and meat – they will need supplementary vitamin C.
Vitamin C is very easily destroyed in cooking. Before you even start to cook them, vegetables that are not fresh, are wilted or have been stored for long in the refrigerator will have lost much of their C vitamin content. Air also destroys vitamin C and so do enzymes in cut-up fruit and vegetables that are exposed to the air. Heat destroys the vitamin – the longer food is kept hot, the more is lost. Vitamin C is dissolved out by water and destroyed by alkalis like bicarbonate of soda. Effectively, then, we have to rely on fresh uncooked fruit and vegetables for our main supply.
Vitamin C is not stored in the body beyond a certain saturation point, and excess is then excreted. Its use in a large dose (I teaspoon of ascorbic acid) taken at the start of a cold has almost gone into folk medicine in the last few years, but the case for it is still very much in doubt. So is the value of saturating th
e body with it to ward off colds. Synthetic ascorbic acid is used in manufactured food as an antioxidant, and by the bread industry to accelerate the proving and maturing of bread dough – this does not increase the vitamin content of the bread as baking does away with the vitamin C.
Vitamin D is a complex of substances including calciferol (D2) and cholecalciferol (D3). It is found mainly in oily fish, margarine (into which it: is put) and eggs. It also forms when the skin is exposed to the sun. Deficiency prevents calcium from being properly absorbed and so leads to rickets. The risk of deficiency is greater in winter and people who spend their lives indoors, especially young children in cloudy climates. Most adults get enough to supply their needs.
The normal daily requirement would be easily supplied by a serving of herrings, kippers, mackerel, or eels, but most people probably get their supply from the sun, and from margarine and eggs. Cod liver oil is exceedingly rich in vitamin D, and 1 teaspoon of it a day will provide all anyone could wish for. In cooking, vitamin D is not destroyed by heat (except in frying) and, being fat soluble, does not dissolve out in cooking water.
Too much vitamin D is toxic and may cause calcium to be deposited in the circulatory system. (It can also harm the unborn child if an expectant mother goes on a cod-liver spree.) The worry at the moment is that because manufacturers enrich milk, flour, cereals and baby foods, some people may be getting too much vitamin D in their diets.