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Published on by Helen Best-Shaw 32 Comments
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Making your own pickling vinegar for pickles and chutneys is really easy and far tastier than buying ready made. Make a batch in advance of the abundant summer harvest. Vegan and easily gluten free.
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Pickling Vinegar
I am a huge fan of homemade jams, jellies and chutneys, and I love my weekend afternoons pottering in my kitchen stirring a huge vat of preserve, warming jars, bottling, sealing and making pretty labels. I find the rituals of preserving calming and satisfying, therapeutic and meditative. After a tough week at work I decide to “preserve” and look forward to my trip to the market to see what is on offer, in season and looks the perfect fruit of vegetable to jam, jelly or chutnify. Sometimes things do not go entirely to plan – the kiwi fruit chutney that seemed such a good idea at the time was an experiment never to be repeated.
Such was the addiction that my production far outpaced the rate of consumption and gifting and a shelf in my cavernous hall cupboard was full of preserves, and I’ve not made any for well over 5 years. But supplies have now dwindled and I’m looking forward to getting back into the preserving groove.
For the perfect chutney you need good vinegar. There are special pickling vinegars in the supermarket, but they are twice the price of normal malt vinegars and I prefer to make my own with spices that I like (or have been in the cupboard for sometime and need using up). I’ve been making my own for some time now, and am always delighted with the results.
By making in advance and leaving to infuse you will have a lovely rounded, balanced, flavoured vinegar with no harsh or over extracted notes.
Homemade Pickling Vinegar – Hints and Tips
- Use your favourite warming spices including
- Cloves
- Cardamon
- Cinnamon sticks
- Mustard Seeds
- Coriander Seeds
- Cumin
- Peppercorns
- Dried Chilli
- Onion / Nigella Seeds
- Turmeric Root
- Dried Ginger
- Lightly crush larger seeds like cardamom before adding to the vinegar, whole spices are best, especially for pickles rather than chutney – if you use ground use a coffee filter to filter the pickling vinegar before use, but remember the vinegar will go cloudy
- For a Christmas / Holiday chutney add more cinnamon, nutmeg and some allspice berries
- Ideally you need to make your pickling vinegar a month before use – to speed up the infusion process stand the filled and sealed vinegar bottles over night in the slow cooker, or stand on the top rack of the dishwasher for one cycle
- If you are short on cupboard space half fill an empty vinegar bottle with spices and then top up with vinegar. Dilute it at least 3:1 when you come to use it
- I find the supermarket own label malt vinegar works well for most chutneys, the economy ones are very harsh and if you are flavouring them there is no need to buy the expensive branded products.
Is Malt Vinegar Gluten Free?
The malt vinegar is made from malted barley which contains gluten, so cannot be guaranteed 100% gluten free. But it is made with a fermentation and distillation process so the amount of barley and thus gluten in the finished vinegar is extremely small.
Coeliac UK advise that any gluten in malt vinegar will be well below the level that is safe for people with coeliac disease, but a small number of people may react. Legally barley has to be listed as ingredient in both malt vinegar and products made with it.
Balsamic, cider, sherry, spirit, wine vinegars are all made from gluten free ingredients. Cider and wine would be the best to use here. If in doubt consult your health care professional.
Chutney recipes that use pickling vinegar
- Plum chutney
- Banana chutney
- Other preserve recipes
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How to Make Pickling Vinegar for Homemade Chutney and Pickles {Vegan}
Making your own pickling vinegar for pickles and chutneys is really easy and far tastier than buying ready made. The ideal way to use up a stash of spices. Vegan and easily gluten free
Servings: 1 Pint
Author: Helen Best-Shaw
Prep Time5 minutes mins
Cook Time1 minute min
infusing time1 day d 9 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
Total Time6 minutes mins
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Coriander Seeds
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp Peppercorns
- 3 Dried red chillies ((or more or less to taste))
- 4 Cloves
- 1 pint Malt vinegar
For gluten free pickling vinegar
- 1 pint Cider or wine vingar ((certified gluten free))
Instructions
Place spices into a pint bottle of malt vinegar*. This quantity should fit into a full bottle without having to pour any of the vinegar away. Seal, give a good shake and leave to infuse for a month or more then use in chutney
Notes
- Malt vinegar is made from malted barley and is not guaranteed gluten free. but as it is fermented and distilled any trace gluten will be below the level that Coeliac UK advises is safe for people withcoeliac disease.
- I use supermarket own brand malt vinegar – Once the spices have been added I can tell no difference from a branded label. The economy / basics ranges are by and large a false economy as they are very very harsh.
- This recipe is 5 Weight Watchers Smart Points per portion
• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
• Unless stated otherwise cup conversions have been made with an online tool. For accuracy please check with your favoured conversion tool. We recommend buying inexpensive digital kitchen scales.
Nutrition Facts
How to Make Pickling Vinegar for Homemade Chutney and Pickles {Vegan}
Amount Per Serving (100 ml)
Calories 113Calories from Fat 9
% Daily Value*
Fat 1g2%
Sodium 13mg1%
Potassium 58mg2%
Carbohydrates 5g2%
Fiber 2g8%
Protein 1g2%
Calcium 61mg6%
Iron 0.9mg5%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Course: Pickling
Cuisine: Preserving
Keyword: Pickling Vinegar
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Post originally published September 2007, updated June 2017.
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food
Wow, you are my HERO! Your preserving, bottling, and (pretty) labeling operation sounds truly impressive. It tickles my imagination to think about kiwi fruit chutney gone awry! Making my own vinegar is not something it had ever occurred to me to try. I will clearly have to give it a go, since I’ve recently begun making pickled just about everything. I particularly like the addition of the dried chiles. Thanks for the great recipe!Reply
Helen
Glad you like the idea Michelle. Its not really homemade vinegar, but homemade infused!
Reply
Kelly @ trial and eater
I’ve never done this before – thanks for the tips!Reply
Helen
Enjoy your pickling!
Reply
Lisa Bryan
Interesting! I’ve never made a pickling vinegar before but this makes me want to give it a try!Reply
Helen
It makes the pickling and making chutney process far faster!
Reply
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Katherine|Wanderspice
What a smart shortcut. My husband’s constantly pickling peppers and of course pickles and it’s become such a process. Good idea.Reply
Helen
It means you are all ready to go come the first harvest!
Reply
Elizabeth
Oh I bet this tastes amazing! It’s been such a long time since I’ve done any pickling. Need to make more of an effort this year!Reply
Helen
it does add another layer of flavour to your pickles for sure.
Reply
Emma @ Supper in the Suburbs
I may be being naive but what is the difference between brown and white vinegar?! I’ve always used white vinegar to make pickles and then spiked it with various herbs and spices depending on what it is I’m pickling. I like your idea of having the vinegar spiked ready to go though! Certainly speeds up the process!Reply
Helen
I tend to only make chutney and always use malt vinegar as when I follow a recipe it says use malt vinegar.
Reply
Dannii
Every year we say we are going to pickle vegetables and we never do. When we have our garden next year, I am definitely going to give this a try.Reply
Helen
Hope you have lots of storage space as once you start it is really addictive.
Reply
Julie
What went wrong with the kiwifruit chutney? Of course it will never retain it’s bright green, but unless you left the skins on, I can’t imagine what else could go wrong.
Reply
Helen
it was just vile! Really acidic. And it looked like frogspawn!
Reply
Jason Hails
What a great idea i have thought about pickling for some time but have been put off by the price of pickling vinegars.Thanks for the ideas.
Reply
Helen
It is so easy, and tastier to make your own!
Reply
Becca
I love spending time in the kitchen making jams and chutneys. It really is therapeutic. Loving the idea of making your own pickling vinegar. Something I hadn’t thought of, and is so easy.Reply
Helen
It really is relaxing and enjoyable isn’t it.
Reply
Manjeet
Homemade is always better than shop bought and saving yourself money is a great bonus.Reply
Helen
I much prefer homemade.
Reply
Miranda
My Mother was a great jam and chutney maker. I love the smells as it cooks. I’m sure she used to make her own pickling vinegar too. I’m a great eater of jams and chutney.Reply
Helen
I too can be a great eater of both, especially if it is a particularly good batch.
Reply
Rosemary Young
Such a good idea, and absolutely so easy to do. I love the art of preserve making, all so wonderful.Reply
Helen
Very easy to make, and adds a better flavour I find.
Reply
Ian
I’m always shocked at the costs of simple things for home cooking, and pickling vinegar is ridiculous. Great ways to keep the costs down and make a decent product too.Reply
Helen
Cutting costs is a great help when making your own.
Reply
Keith
Hello Helen,
Thank you for taking the time to do this.
I need to avoid gluten now, so the chutney I made two years ago,
is now off limits, as I used vinegar made with malted BARLEY.
These vinegar contain GLUTEN, your recipe, is for G. Free ?But your still using “Malt Vinegar” I am “confused.com”
Reply
Helen
Dear Keith,
Thank for commenting. I’ve double checked at Coeliac UK and they say that as malt vinegar is a fermented product it contains an extremely low level of gluten which is considered well below the level which is safe for most people with coeliac disease. (updated guidance from Coeliac UK inserted June 2021 – https://www.coeliac.org.uk/blog/barley-malt-vinegar-and-barley-malt-extract/)
The problem is that as barley is used in the process legally the vinegar has to be labelled with barley, even though the levels of gluten are extremely small.
Hopefully this will help, and you can check with your doctor and enjoy your homemade chutneys.
Reply
Paul W
With thanks to you Helen, we have managed to pickle a variety of veggies so far this summer. Ideal to make your own vinegar, couldn’t be easier.Reply
Ellie D
A day of chopping, pickling, and labeling sounds ideal. I love doing this kind of thing, very therapeutic.Reply
