Making Herbal Vinegars and Oxymels at Home

A Tradition Worth Reviving

The word oxymel comes from the Greek — oxys for sharp, meli for honey — and it describes exactly what it is: vinegar and honey blended together. It is one of the oldest preparations in the herbal cupboard, and it costs almost nothing to make at home.

Vinegar is a gentle solvent, pulling flavour, colour and plant acids from leaves and flowers while preserving what it draws out. Honey does the opposite work, rounding off the sharpness and adding its own depth. The result is genuinely pleasant to use, whether whisked into a salad dressing in July or stirred into hot water on a raw February morning.

If you live near heathland, you have one of the best larders in Britain on your doorstep. Heather, wild thyme, gorse and wood sage thrive on acid, sandy soils, and all make excellent vinegars.

What You Need Before You Start

You need very little to begin.

• Vinegar. Raw apple cider vinegar is the traditional choice, and its soft fruitiness suits most herbs. White wine vinegar is cleaner and lets delicate flavours through. Avoid malt vinegar, which is too aggressive, and cheap distilled vinegar, which tastes of nothing.
• Honey. Raw and unheated if you can find it. Runny honey blends far more easily than set.
• Jars. Clean glass with vinegar-proof lids. Metal lids corrode, so line them with a square of baking parchment.
• Kit. Muslin or a fine sieve, a funnel, dark glass bottles and labels. You will not remember what is in that bottle by November.

Wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse well and dry them in a low oven. Everything touching the vinegar should be clean and dry.

Foraging on the Heath with Care

Late July to early September is the peak. Heather is in full flower, gorse carries its coconut-scented blooms on and off all year, and the low herbs — wild thyme, wood sage, selfheal, betony, yarrow — are at their most aromatic. Damper hollows may give you meadowsweet.

Pick with restraint and with permission. In England and Wales it is an offence to uproot any wild plant without the landowner's consent, and many heathland sites are protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, where collecting is not allowed at all. Ask first if you are unsure. Beyond the legalities:

• Take only from plants that are abundant locally, and never more than a small handful from any one plant.
• Pick flowers and leaves, never roots.
• Leave the strongest specimens to set seed.
• Avoid roadside verges, sprayed land and heavily dog-walked paths.
• Be certain of your identification. If you are not, leave it.

Making an Infused Vinegar

Loosely pack your chosen herb into a clean jar — a good fistful of chopped fresh leaves and flowers to a 500ml jar. Do not cram it tight. Pour over the vinegar until everything is covered by at least a centimetre, then stir with a skewer to release trapped air.

Seal, label with the herb and the date, and stand in a cool, dark cupboard for three to four weeks, shaking daily for the first week. Taste weekly: when the flavour is full rather than raw, it is ready. Strain through muslin, pressing the plant material for every last drop, then bottle in dark glass.

For dried herbs, use roughly one part dried plant to five parts vinegar by weight — dried material is concentrated and can turn a vinegar bitter. Good combinations from the heath: heather flowers in cider vinegar, which turns a deep pink; wild thyme in white wine vinegar, superb on tomatoes; and gorse flower vinegar, which lifts a plain vinaigrette.

Turning Vinegar into an Oxymel

Once you have an infused vinegar, an oxymel is barely more work. The simplest method is equal parts infused vinegar and honey, warmed very gently — never above a simmer, and never boiled, or you lose the character of the honey. Whisk until combined, cool and bottle.

For a slower, richer result, put the herbs straight into a jar, cover with honey and vinegar together, and leave for four to six weeks, shaking hard and often. Expect to strain through a double layer of muslin.

Traditional winter oxymels leaned towards four parts vinegar, two parts honey and one part water — thinner and easier by the spoonful. Thyme suits the chest, sage the throat, betony and yarrow are more bitter and bracing, and rosehip oxymel from berries gathered after the first frosts is a fine thing to have on the shelf.

Using and Keeping Your Bottles

In the kitchen these vinegars earn their place: in vinaigrettes, splashed over roasted root vegetables, used to deglaze a pan of onions, or sharpening a lentil salad. Oxymels are sweeter and thicker, so treat them as a dressing or a glaze — excellent drizzled over goat's cheese or stirred into yoghurt with olive oil.

As a winter standby, a spoonful in hot water with a slice of lemon is a traditional way to warm up and soothe a scratchy throat. Keep expectations sensible: these are pleasant, food-based preparations, not medicines, and no substitute for proper advice if you are unwell.

In a cool, dark cupboard, infused vinegars keep a year or more; oxymels are best within six months. Check them occasionally — if you see mould, smell mustiness or the liquid has gone fizzy, throw it out. Otherwise label clearly and enjoy the fact that a walk on the heath in August has become something you can taste in January.