Chive Blossom Vinegar

Name: Chive Blossom Vinegar
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 14 d 5 min
Yield: 8 1 oz servings
Ingredients: ½ cup chive blossoms; ¾ cup white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar; peel from about half a lemon (preferably organic)

User Reviews

5.0

3 reviews

Excellent

Prep Time
5 mins
Infusing Time:
14 d
Total Time
14 d 5 mins
Servings
8 1 oz servings
Calories
4 kcal
Course
Condiments
Cuisine
American

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Joelle Price

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Growing chives? Harvest the flowers and make chive blossom vinegar! Use this floral vinegar in a homemade vinaigrette!

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Ingredients

Servings

½ cup chive blossoms (fully open or partially open, both will work)
¾ cup white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
peel from about half a lemon (preferably organic)

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Instructions

Clean the flowers by dipping the chive blossoms into a bowl of water, and set aside to dry.Optional: Heat the vinegar until it's warm. Do not bring it to a boil.Tip: Heating the vinegar will help the blossoms infuse more quickly, but will produce a slightly less delicate flavor than room temperature vinegar.
Use kitchen shears to remove any green chives from the flowers. Add the flowers to a clean glass jar, and muddle them with a cocktail muddler or the back of a wooden spoon.
Pour the vinegar over the flowers into the jar until the jar is almost full. (The amount of vinegar listed is approximate, you may need slightly more or less.)Place the lemon peel on top of the flowers to help keep them submerged.
Seal the jar, and place it in a cool place out of direct sunlight. Check on the vinegar daily to make sure the blossoms are still submerged.Allow the blossoms to infuse for anywhere from 3 days (if you used warm vinegar), or 3-5 weeks (for room temperature vinegar), until you like the flavor. Note that even warm vinegar infusions can be infused for 3-5 weeks. It all depends on your flavor preferences.Finally, strain out and discard (or compost) the blossoms and lemon peel. Store the vinegar in a sealed jar in the fridge, and use within 6-8 months.

Notes

Doubling or Tripling the Recipe: Use the measurements as a guide, not a rule. In general, pack the chive blossoms into a jar and fill the jar with vinegar. If you use more blossoms your infusion will be stronger, and fewer blossoms will give you a milder infusion.Do not double or triple the lemon peel. While it will add some flavor, its main job is to hold the flowers under the liquid.
Vinegar Substitutions: I recommend using white wine or champagne vinegar. If all you have on hand is apple cider vinegar, it will work, but the flavor of the chive blossoms will be less distinctive (because ACV has a strong flavor). If you use rice vinegar, you should infuse the vinegar in the fridge and expect the infusion to take slightly longer. Rice vinegar's lower acidity level makes it unsafe to infuse at room temperature.Avoid using white distilled vinegar, because it's too astringent-tasting.