Natural Cook Studio of Bend

Vinegar

For about ten thousand years throughout the world, vinegar has been an important seasoning agent, preservative, medicine, beauty aid, and antibiotic.  The word vinegar comes from the French vin meaning wine and aigre meaning sour.  Traditionally, whatever local sugar containing food source was in abundance in your region was turned to vinegar and in North America we had apples. The best types of vinegars are naturally brewed, unfiltered versions of apple cider, (brown) rice wine, white wine, and umeboshi.
Unpasteurized, unfiltered vinegar  can contains as many as 50 different nutrients, amino acids, and trace elements which contribute to its sour and sweet taste and also its many medicinal properties.  Vinegar immediately increases circulation and therefore moves stasis- be it emotional or physical. The amino acids counter the effect of lactic acid buildup in the blood and help prevent the formation of toxic fat peroxides, which contribute to aging, fatigue, and irritability and to cholesterol formation on blood vessel walls. Vinegar assists in neutralizing poisons in the body, parasites in the digestive tract, relieves damp conditions such as edema, overweight, excess mucus and athlete’s foot. Applied topically it can relieve sunburn and may ease arthritis and insect bites.
I choose to feature vinegar this week because of how well it goes with all those fresh bitter garden greens.  Also you may want to try infusing your fresh herbs into vinegar.  As a general rule us 1 cup of fresh herbs to flavor 1 qt of vinegar. When cooking with vinegar, I use nonreactive cookware, vinegars 4 to 6 percent acetic acid is corrosive.

In Health,