Allium Blossom Vinegar

JULY 6, 2012 ~ CAROLINE

Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been harvesting all of our alliums from the garden.  One of my beds of red onions had started shooting up flower stalks before I got to it, and after seeing the chive blossom vinegar from Food In Jars last year,  I thought I would try and turn the blossoms into something lovely.

The result:

You have to try this.  It takes two minutes. The jar looks gorgeous sitting on the pantry shelf.  And the flavor makes every savory thing that you cook taste awesome.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Snip some chive blossoms or onion blossoms or garlic blossoms, or some garlic scapes even.  No specific amount, just estimate and try to get about as much will fill a quart jar.

2. Wash them thoroughly, then dry them thoroughly.

3. Put them in a clean jar.  They should be pretty loosely packed with plenty of room for the vinegar around all of the blossoms and stalks.

4. Cover them with vinegar. I used white vinegar. You could use white wine or champagne vinegar too, of course, though I kind of like that the white vinegar was a really neutral blank slate.  (but really I bought it because it was dirt cheap).

5. Let the jar sit in a cool, dark corner for a couple of weeks.

6. Take off the lid and smell the vinegar; it will probably smell wonderfully aromatic, like scallions.  If you’re happy with how strong the infusion is, go ahead and strain out the blossoms and it’s ready to use.

7. Decide that it’s delicious and go chop down every allium flower in the garden so you can actually get a couple quarts for the pantry.

I ended up playing around with several varieties of alliums. This second set of pictures are blossoms from elephant garlic, one of my favorite things in the garden.  The garlic cloves are massive and a snap to peel, they shoot up gorgeous purple flower blossoms that look great in cut flower bouquets, and the vinegar made from the flowers has a lovely green garlic scent to it.

Oh, and a recipe suggestion-

We had grilled eggplant, roasted potatoes and falafel with tzatziki sauce the other night.  The tzatziki was just plain yogurt with diced cucumber, chopped fresh dill, black pepper and a generous pour of the onion blossom vinegar stirred in, and it was… explosive!

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6 thoughts on “Allium Blossom Vinegar”

1. naimaJULY 6, 2012 AT 11:50 AMLooks fantastic and easy! How long will it keep?Reply
   1. CarolineJULY 13, 2012 AT 9:29 PMnaima, I’m pretty sure it keeps indefinitely, like vinegar. I’m not 100% sure, but I’ll check back here if I find out something new.Reply
2. Vinny GretteJULY 6, 2012 AT 12:51 PMAll I can say is WOW. And also, you must like sour, or at least are on a fermented soury kind of kick these days Reply
   1. CarolineJULY 13, 2012 AT 9:27 PMvinny, I sure do love that taste! I don’t eat a lot of sugar in my regular diet, I’ve found that ferments are easier to incorporate more often. Sugar has to be a special treat, really.Reply
3. Little SisJULY 6, 2012 AT 10:18 PMJust beautiful. Would make a fab gift for a foodie. Thanks for sharing.