Raspberries steeped in white or red vinegar make a versatile ingredient for salad dressings.

Chili vinegar: A glass bottle full of hot peppers can be refilled over and over with white vinegar to make chili vinegar for a long time. I use it on greens and as part of a buttermilk marinade for fried chicken; it also contributes a hot kick to my mutated cousin of sweet-and-sour cucumbers, ChineseCukeRelish (actually more like a sambal).

Garlic vinegar: I've currently got a couple cloves of garlic in a jar of cider vinegar, waiting to be unleashed. The garlic smell develops through at least three stages -- penetrating, rank, and round -- so give it a couple weeks to settle down. Thereafter, the garlic vinegar gives a nice kick without being as aggressive as a whole fresh clove: A few drops were just right for a recent quarter-cup serving of FrySauce (which see). Maybe it would work as part of a bold Italian-style salad dressing, maybe to marinate chicken.

Help me figure out what to do with a bay-coriander-ginger white vinegar! All three of these flavorings historically lead a double life, going either with sweet or with savory flavors (though bay leaf is not so often used sweetly since vanilla was discovered). Here, I've got a couple cubic inches of ginger (in smallish slices), a couple teaspoons of coriander seeds, and two bay leaves (which is too many) in a cup and a half of white and rice vinegar. (The ginger was a late addition, but is really just what it needed to make it hang together. And next time round, I'll use rice or white wine vinegar in greater proportion to the distilled white.) The combined aroma is kind of woodsy and resinous, with an edge of fruitiness and an edge of flammability; the flavor is surprisingly like a citrus juice for all that. I have used it in VariantGreekStyleFries in place of lemon juice, with good results. With some white sugar and some extra-virgin olive oil, the vinegar also dresses spinach or carrots pretty nicely ... tangy and subtly fragrant. The next thing that comes to mind is to use it as a sauce, a few drops at a time, to flavor plain dry roast beef or pork. Another is to use it in a marinade, maybe for beef though it may not be robust enough for that. (Yes, I keep going on about vinegar in marinating. Get someone to make you a good Filipino adobo sometime, you'll understand.) I think it might also work out with some other salads; maybe sprinkle it over apples and walnuts on lettuce. I'll have to think about that. Suggestions, even weird or half-formed ones, are welcomed. -- NathanRasmussen