Buying vinegar starter (mother of vinegar) in Japan…

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October 31, 2011 at 7:01 am #4509

drdave
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A tough one…

I have decided to try my hand at homemade wine vinegar making and was hoping to get some of the precious bacteria commonly known as “mother of vinegar” (Mycoderma aceti).

My research so far indicate that the common Japanese name might be 酢酸菌, but none of the variations on any of these names (katakana/no-katakana etc) comes up with anything on Rakuten (my usual last-ditch destination for hard-to-find items).

From my understanding, I would do fine with *any* vinegar that has not been pasteurised (and therefore still contains some of the bacteria), but I doubt that applies to any of the ones I can find in a supermarket.

Any suggestions?

November 7, 2011 at 5:10 am #4718

Michael
Participant

Dear drdave,

Unfortunately I know nothing about making vinegar from scratch. To my way of thinking, vinegar is one of those things I would rather buy than make. I am just not going to be able to make it very well.

I do make the Japanese ‘drink’ vinegar with ume, peaches, etc. I am actually just about to make some with Japanese lemons. However, this just involves macerating the fruit in vinegar and sugar.

I did find this REALLY detailed post on how to make persimmon vinegar.

http://tkksi.web.fc2.com/kitchen/autumn/kakisu.htm

Now, this would be really interesting to make. And, the ‘starter’ is naturally occurring on the skins of the persimmons.

I have been able to get into a lot of sake, shoyu and miso breweries in Japan. I just cold call them and tell them what I am interested in. They are usually willing to take a little time to give you a tour and let you see the production process. You might try that.
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