*Or use distilled white vinegar drained from cherries while making Bing Cherries in a Sweet Nine-Day Pickle.

**If starting with plain vinegar.

If beginning with plain vinegar, add crushed cherries to the vinegar in a sterilized, dry quart or 1 1/2-liter jar; cover jar and let it stand for 1 to 2 weeks.

If you are using vinegar drained from cherries being pickled, add the strawberries to that vinegar and let the mixture stand for 1 or 2 weeks.

Using a fine-meshed sieve or a sieve lined with very fine nylon net or 2 layers of dampened cheesecloth, strain vinegar; press lightly on the pulp to extract as much flavor as possible. Discard pulp.

Prepare and macerate in turn the remaining fruits listed, letting each remain in the vinegar for at least a week or for as long as 2 weeks. After each steeping, drain vinegar as described. After the final draining, place vinegar and sugar in a stainless-steel or enameled saucepan and heat it just to simmering; simmer the vinegar, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Cool completely.

Skim off any foam and strain vinegar into a sterilized, dry bottle. For greatest clarity, you may want to filter it before bottling, passing it through a coffeemaker cone or funnel lined with dampened filter paper. Cap or cork the vinegar (use a new cork only) and store it, preferably in a spot out of the light. If sediment should form in it, it is harmless; simply filter vinegar again, or decant it carefully, or disregard the deposit. Keeps for at least a year in a cool cupboard or pantry.

Witty writes: "Built on the tutti-frutti system of macerating one fruit at a time, this rich vinegar begins with cherries early in summer and winds up with blueberries a few weeks later.

"You can start it, if you like to avoid wicked waste, with the vinegar drained from one or two batches of cherries being prepared as Bing Cherries in a Sweet Nine-Day Pickle. If pickling a batch of cherries isn't in your plans, begin with plain vinegar and crushed cherries, as outlined [above], or omit cherries entirely and begin with the strawberries, in which case you'll be making Three-Fruit Vinegar.

- Sweet & Sour Notes: Flavored Vinegars -

"One of the greatest pleasures of pantry-keeping is building, season by season, a small stock of delightfully flavored vinegars. Whether based on berries or cherries or tarragon or more unusual fruits and herbs, the special vinegars you flavor for yourself (or buy at pricey shops) are useful far beyond their roles in sauces and salads; try them as innovative flavorings wherever a touch of tartness plus fruitiness or a delicate herbal character is an improvement in a dish. For example: Add a little fruit vinegar to sugared fresh berries for a subliminal lift, particularly if the berries are on the bland side. Or pour in a little fruit vinegar to add delicate tartness when you're making fruit preserves or stewing fruit that needs a touch of acid for a well-rounded flavor."

From "Fancy Pantry" by Helen Witty. New York: Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 1986. Pp. 190-191. Isbn 0-89480-037-X. Posted by Cathy Harned. From: Cathy Harned