A Brief History of Drinking Vinegars

This week I had the pleasure of giving a talk on the subject of herbal vinegars to a lovely bunch of ladies from St. Mellion Women’s Institute. In light of this week’s record breaking heatwave, it turns out that drinking vinegar is a very pleasant (and effective,) way to quench your thirst on a balmy Summers’ evening.

We began with a brief plant ID session in the local churchyard, which despite (annoyingly,) having been mown that morning, still yielded a surprising number of specimens.

Churchyards and the lanes around and about are excellent places for plant identification.* This is because in 15th Century rural England, many small parish churches were encouraged to cultivate herb gardens for growing medicines and making natural dyes, both for the monks, and to sell to the local community. In little more than ten minutes we found Yarrow, Nettle, Wood betony, Goose-grass, Ribwort, Vervain, and at a good many other “weeds” that in the days of yore would have been put to good use making all manner of lovely drinks like beer, mead and … vinegar.

*Although churchyards are great for plant spotting, I would never harvest specimens from a church or graveyard for ethical reasons.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself opening a bottle of red wine vinegar. Crack open the lid, and have a sniff. Now imagine yourself pouring a very small amount into a brandy glass and taking a sip. Does that make your cheeks sing?

Without even having to physically taste it, vinegar has the magical power to tell your digestive system to prepare for food. Humans have known about this property for some ten thousand years - hence the reason why the old wives’ tale about drinking apple cider vinegar before a meal is actually a very good piece of advice.

Why on Earth did people start drinking vinegar?

The word itself is supposedly derived from the French vin-aigre, meaning “wine gone sour,” (which in the centuries before the art of wine making was perfected, was probably what most of it turned into.) Before the arrival of clean drinking water, people consumed it either because they didn’t want to throw it away, or because it was being passed off as the real thing.

As wine merchants sometimes paid the transporting ships’ crew in produce rather than wages, it was often a far safer bet to palm off the stuff that had turned, than to hand over the expensive merchandise. Some sources suggest the term “proof” is actually a reference to the sailors insistence on proving the strength of the alcohol by lighting it to see if it burned.

Anyway, it was soon discovered that vinegar was an excellent way to preserve food - and probably the reason why folks began experimenting with steeping herbs and roots in it.

The addition of botanicals soon made it popular among herbalists, who used the combined properties of herbs, vinegar (and sometimes honey,) to make effective and affordable remedies for a variety of ailments. Medieval stillrooms did a roaring trade in the manufacture of vinegars for “unease of thy stomach and braine.” Lavender and rosemary were two of the most popular concoctions, and may even have been the inspiration for the famous four thieves and their legendary vinegar.

Four Thieves Vinegar

There is a tale that tells of four thieves who hailed from the city of Marseille in France, where the Black Death had wiped out almost 60 percent of the population.

During the outbreak, they hatched a plan to steal from the dead and dying, but of course they needed a way to ensure that they themselves would not succumb to the deadly disease.

Inspired by the popular apothecary preparations of the day, they went about creating a potion which would guarantee them success in their macabre mission. Clues to the secret as to how they managed to remain healthy and well despite all around succumbing to the terrible virus, may be found in the following recipe hung in the Museum of Paris.

It is said to be an original copy of the recipe posted on the walls of Marseilles after the four notorious thieves were finally captured.

Take three pints of strong white wine vinegar, add a handful of each of wormwood, meadow-sweet, wild marjoram and sage, fifty cloves, two ounces of campanula roots, two ounces of angelic, rosemary and horehound, and three large measures of camphor. Place the mixture in a container for fifteen days, strain, express and then bottle. Rub on the hands, ears and temples when approaching a plague victim.

There are many modern variations of the four thieves vinegar recipe which is really very easy to make. Most typically include herbs such as sage, lavender, thyme, garlic, rue, mint and wormwood. It’s traditional to use four herbs in the recipe – one for each thief!

My next Botanical Drinks Workshop will be held at Mawgan Porth Village Hall (Cornwall) on Saturday 10th Feb For more information and tickets, head over to the website.