This is my first time trying out Sandor Ellix-Katz’s incredibly simple recipe for Vinagre de Piña. I’ve been wanting to try it ever since reconnecting with his book Wild Fermentation in September as I wrote my Lightplay, “An Archipelago of Life-Promoting Culture.”
Saturday evening, the kid watched me cut up the pineapple. Then together we filled a half-gallon jar with sugary water, stuffed the roughly chopped pineapple skins into it, and covered the jar mouth with cheesecloth. We set it to ferment on the far end of the kitchen table. I ate my portion of the pineapple flesh in the bath.
Now we’re waiting, sniffing it daily, and occasionally skimming some scum off the surface. The liquor is definitely getting a bit funky. On Saturday we’ll strain the pineapple skins out and then let the clear liquid keep fermenting for a few more weeks. I’ll keep you posted on how it comes out.
