"James Silverton" > wrote in news:iav9dk$4fa
:

> Gawd! How fussy do we have to get for vinegar steeped over grape skins?

That's because you think of vinegar as being a condiment. Producing good
vinegar takes years. The term "vinaigre" in French is made up first of the
word "vin" which refers to wine and "aigre" which translates more
accurately as "acrid". Technically, a laboratory produced clear acetic
acid solution (5 or 7%) is not vinegar.

Vinegar, in Latin, is "vinum aegrum" or "feeble wine".

"Vinegar has been made and used for thousands of years. Traces of it have
been found in Egyptian urns dating from around 3000 BC. According to
Shennong's Herb Classic, vinegar was invented in China during the Xia
Dynasty, around 2000 BC.

"In the Bible, it is mentioned as something not very pleasant (Ps. 69:21,
Prov. 25:20), but Boaz allows Ruth to "dip her piece of bread in the
vinegar" (Ruth 2:14). Jesus was offered vinegar or sour wine while on the
cross (Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:36). In Islamic traditions, vinegar is one of
the four favored condiments of the Prophet Muhammad, who called it a
"Blessed seasoning".

"In 1864, Louis Pasteur showed that vinegar results from a natural
fermentation process."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar

--

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag
and carrying a cross.

Sinclair Lewis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnrYMafCzeE