Save That Old, Opened Wine in Your Fridge by Making Homemade Vinegar

Even if you love wine, chances are you'll end up with a little left in the bottle from time to time. If the wine has been open a few days, it's not worth drinking (unless you used some Wine Preserver spray), but you don't want to throw it away either. The answer? Make vinegar. Homemade vinegar is incredibly easy, a perfect way to use up leftover wine, and simply delicious. Oh, and did I mention easy?

Step 1: Pour Your Wine in a Bowl

Pour some red wine in a bowl, or any other receptacle with a large opening. A wide-mouth jar will do (though a bowl works better). You'll want to avoid bottles, though, or anything else with a small opening, as it will make the process take a very long time, since there is so little surface area.

Save That Old, Opened Wine in Your Fridge by Making Homemade Vinegar — *Image by Brady Klopfer/Food Hacks Daily*

Step 2: Cover with Cheesecloth

Cover the bowl with cheesecloth, or a similar material. If you don't have cheesecloth, you can put a lid over the bowl, but make sure it's not entirely closed. You want to make sure that oxygen can reach the wine, or else it won't turn to vinegar, but you also want to keep the fruit flies out.

Step 3: Wait, Pour Off, & Add More

Every few days, swirl your wine around. After two weeks, taste it to see if it tastes like vinegar. Keep trying it every few days until the result is satisfactory. At this point, the vinegar will have developed a "mother" (the live bacteria that helps make vinegar), which means that you can make more batches quickly. Simply pour out some (but not all) of the vinegar into a bottle so you can use it, then add more wine to the bowl. This next batch of vinegar will only take a few days to make.

Homemade vinegar is easy, fun, and tasty. Your friends won't believe that you made it yourself, and you don't have to tell them that all you did was put it in a bowl!