Ättika

What it is

Ättika is the Swedish word for vinegar and, in modern kitchens, often refers to a clear, strong acetic acid solution. This recipe makes a Swedish-style fermented spirit vinegar at home, not a 12% or 24% commercial concentrate.

Spirit vinegar begins with alcohol which acetic acid bacteria oxidise in the presence of air. The result is clean and neutral compared with fruit vinegar, though the starter can contribute flavour.

Manufacturing varies: Kavli says the acetic acid in Perstorp Ättika is made by chemical synthesis and purified; its 24% product contains acetic acid and water. Some 12% ättiksprit products are biologically produced from agricultural alcohol.

History

Vinegar was known in Sweden long before bottled ättika. The Swedish Academy's historical dictionary records sixteenth-century spellings, among them ätik- and ättik-, and cites the 1526 Swedish New Testament. The word came through Germanic languages from Latin acetum. These records show the word in use; they do not describe a standard strength, and early references to wine vinegar show that ättika did not originally mean a purified acid solution.

By the seventeenth century Swedish texts discuss making and storing vinegar. A work attributed to Johann Colerus from about 1645 describes vinegar vessels and ättikmoder, the vinegar mother, and the dictionary notes vinegar containers in seventeenth-century inventories. In the eighteenth century vinegar brewers, ättiksbryggare, were a recognised trade, and a December 1771 advertisement names a brewer called Schultz. Names and containers show use, while brewers and mother show knowledge of production.

Industry changed the picture in the nineteenth century. A contemporary account of Th. Winborg & Co. in Sveriges industri links the firm's predecessor to the chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius and the Kummelnäs vinegar works, without giving a founding year. Theodor Winborg obtained permission to run the Stockholm factory in 1861. Earlier attempts reportedly ended in failed fermentations, and after the engineer Alarik Liedbeck studied rapid vinegar making abroad, the works adopted a process that worked.

The Winborg works used tall generators running through two storeys, in which alcohol was oxidised biologically as liquid trickled over bacterial growth surfaces in contact with air. The account describes 10 to 12 percent ättiksprit for dilution into table vinegar. An analytical certificate dated 28 March 1889 describes a sample made by alcohol fermentation and tested after dilution with an equal volume of water. The account also records lower costs after a change in the alcohol tax from the beginning of 1888.

A rival route grew up in Skåne. Wilhelm Wendt founded Stensmölla Kemiska Tekniska Industri in Perstorp in 1881. It heated beech wood without air and recovered acetic acid from the products of dry distillation, and in 1886 became Skånska Ättiksfabriken. The Nationalmuseum and the Skåne county board describe this history separately. A regional industrial study counts fourteen Swedish vinegar factories towards the end of the century, with Winborg leading spirit vinegar and Wendt wood-derived acid, and records a vinegar brewery in Helsingborg in 1879.

The modern retail strengths of 12 and 24 percent are well documented, but nobody has dated when they became standard. The history of vinegar in Sweden, of concentrated ättiksprit and of individual brands should be kept apart.

Making fermented spirit vinegar

The vodka supplies ethanol already produced by alcoholic fermentation and distillation. Dilution brings it into a range suitable for the live vinegar culture; bacteria need oxygen to convert ethanol into acetic acid. Keep a breathable cover secured against insects and allow several weeks, checking the actual acidity rather than assuming a result.

A titration kit measures total acidity expressed as acetic acid; pH alone does not give percent acidity. Acidity and residual alcohol vary with the culture, conditions and time. Smell and taste cannot confirm either measurement or preservation safety.

For an alcohol-from-sugar alternative, dissolve about 120 g white sugar per litre of water, add wine yeast and appropriate yeast nutrient, and ferment under an airlock at about 18–24°C until complete, typically 1–3 weeks. Measure original and final gravity to estimate alcohol. Rack off sediment, adjust to approximately 5–7% ABV, and inoculate with 10–20% live vinegar before the aerobic stage. This is an adaptation, not a guarantee of neutral flavour or final acidity.

Use a tested preserving recipe and the commercially labelled vinegar it specifies. Penn State advises against using homemade vinegar for home pickling, even though titration can be useful for monitoring a ferment.

How it works: acetic acid and bacteria

The active compound is acetic acid, CH3COOH, called ättiksyra in Swedish. In water it partly dissociates into hydrogen ions and acetate ions, with a pKa of about 4.76. That makes it a weak acid in the chemical sense, one that does not dissociate completely, although strong solutions still cause chemical burns. The sharp smell comes from the undissociated molecules, which are volatile.

A biologically made ättiksprit starts from alcohol. If the alcohol is made from grain, enzymes first turn the starch into fermentable sugars, yeasts ferment those sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide, and distillation may separate the ethanol before vinegar making begins. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the usual industrial yeast, but makers do not publish the strains behind particular Swedish brands.

The acetic stage depends on acetic acid bacteria, genera such as Acetobacter and Komagataeibacter. Acetobacter pasteurianus and Komagataeibacter europaeus are well documented in vinegar research, but none of the checked Swedish makers names the cultures it uses. The bacteria are strictly aerobic. Alcohol dehydrogenase on their membrane turns ethanol into acetaldehyde and aldehyde dehydrogenase turns that into acetic acid, passing electrons to oxygen. In outline C2H5OH + O2 gives CH3COOH + H2O.

Some Komagataeibacter species tolerate more acid than many Acetobacter strains, which matters in making strong vinegar. It does not follow that a bottle of 24 percent ättika was fermented directly to 24 percent. Purification, concentration or a different manufacturing process may be involved, and where acetic acid is made chemically no yeast or bacterium takes part. The molecule is the same.

Acetic acid preserves by lowering pH and through the action of the undissociated acid, which can enter microbial cells and upset their internal pH and metabolism. The effect depends on acid concentration, the food and the organism. Salt and sugar add further barriers by tying up water. The strength on the bottle is not the acidity of the finished pickle, because water, sugar and moisture from the vegetables change the composition.

Regional and historical variations

Swedish ättika has varied more by manufacturing method, strength and use than by regional recipe. The word could mean wine vinegar, grain vinegar, fermented spirit vinegar or purified acetic acid in water, which were not necessarily alike in flavour or strength. A modern clear 24 percent solution should not be assumed to be the vinegar of every historical recipe.

One old distinction is between spritättika and träättika. Spirit vinegar was made by oxidising ethanol biologically, in equipment that gave the liquid much contact with air. Wood vinegar came from the acids formed when wood is dry distilled, recovered and purified. The acetic acid is chemically identical, but the two could differ in impurities and accompanying aromas, and nineteenth-century accounts say they tasted different.

Stockholm was a centre of industrial fermented vinegar. Winborg's factory was associated with the rapid generator method, known historically as snällättikfabrikation, and records concentrated spirit vinegar of roughly 10 to 12 percent that was diluted before table use. Perstorp in Skåne took the wood route using local beech, and Eslöv was also associated with spirit vinegar. These are production centres. They do not show that households in different provinces preferred different strengths.

Modern products differ in production as well as strength. Kavli says Perstorp's 24% product uses purified, chemically synthesised acetic acid, while Kavli and Druvan list biological 12% products from agricultural alcohol. Ordinary home fermentation is not a reliable way to reach either 12% or 24%.

Cooking varies more than the product. Swedes pickle herring, Baltic herring, cucumbers and beetroot, and newer cooking adds quick pickles of red onion, radish and mixed vegetables. No reliable source assigns the 1-2-3 ratio to a province or dates its invention.

How it is eaten and used

Ättika is a standard sour in Swedish cooking, used in pickling liquids, fish, vegetables, sauces and dressings. Commercial strengths differ from this homemade vinegar; do not exchange them volume for volume.

Inlagd sill, pickled herring, is the key dish. A prepared herring is covered with ättiksprit, water and sugar, often with allspice, bay leaves, onion and carrot. ICA's basic version uses 1 decilitre of 12 percent ättiksprit, 2 decilitres of sugar and 3 decilitres of water: the liquid is heated to dissolve the sugar, cooled and used with the prepared fish. The kind of herring used, whether salted, pretreated or otherwise preserved, matters for safety and cannot simply be swapped for raw fish.

Baltic herring, strömming, is also cooked this way. In stekt inlagd strömming the fish is seasoned, floured and fried before going into a sweet-sour liquid with onions and spices. ICA's recipe uses the same 1-2-3 quantities, the fish is cooked separately, and the dish is chilled. Other strömming recipes treat the fish differently and carry their own proportions.

Pressgurka is thin cucumber slices salted and pressed to lose some water, then dressed. ICA's version uses 2 tablespoons of 12 percent ättiksprit, 1 decilitre of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar, white pepper and parsley, and it is eaten quickly with meatballs and potatoes. The salting is not a lactic or alcoholic fermentation.

Inlagda rödbetor, pickled beetroot, go with everyday dishes such as pyttipanna. The beetroot is cooked first and covered with a liquid that may hold sugar, peppercorns, cloves, bay and horseradish. ICA's recipe uses 2 decilitres of 12 percent ättika, 9 decilitres of water and 3 decilitres of sugar for 1 kilogram of beetroot plus spices, which shows that 1-2-3 is not used for everything. Modern kitchens also quick-pickle red onion, radish, cauliflower and fennel. A refrigerated quick pickle is not a shelf-stable preserve just because it contains ättika.

Commercial strengths and troubleshooting

Kavli's volume ratios for its food-grade 24% Perstorp Ättika are: one part concentrate plus one part water for nominal 12%; one plus three for 6%; and one plus seven for 3%. This is a separate dilution method, not vinegar fermentation. Check the starting label; do not use cleaning or industrial acid.

A homemade ferment can develop a smooth mother, but not every successful batch does. Discard the batch if fuzzy or coloured mould appears. An acid smell is not proof of safety, finished fermentation or a particular concentration.

A suitable titration test reports total acidity, whereas a pH meter measures hydrogen ion activity and cannot establish percentage acidity. Neither titration nor smell establishes residual alcohol. Avoid casual boiling to concentrate vinegar.

The Swedish Poisons Information Centre classifies 24% ättika as corrosive. Keep it labelled and away from children; avoid splashes and never mix acid with chlorine cleaners. Follow tested preservation methods and use their specified commercially labelled vinegar: the acidity throughout the finished food matters, not just the liquid.