You'll never believe what I did today!

Speyer, Germany

Today was really an unbelievable day. We are in Speyer (pronounced ‘spire’) and on the schedule was a visit to the Doktorenhof Vinegar Estate with a cooking class to follow. The cooking class was cancelled (not enough people signed up) and I almost cancelled the tour.

Am I glad I didn’t. The Estate produces an amazing number of drinking vinegars. Yes, that was not a typo. Drinking vinegars.

We went through the whole production process, which, with the exception of one machine, is all hand made. Including filling the bottles and labeling them. Our guide was the chef and he was excellent. His reputation in Germany is equal to any our top TV chefs in America. He does the German equivalent of Top Chef.

While we were touring the cellars I learned something I never learned as a priest. When the soldier offered Jesus a vinegar filled sponge it was actually an act of kindness. Vinegar was used to make drinking water safe and palatable since it is a natural disinfectant. Over the centuries this was lost and it became the hostile act all of us think of today.

I also learned that for centuries every home had its own ‘vinegar mother.’ That’s the starter bacteria, much like sourdough starter. For a house warming gift people would give a container of vinegar and some vinegar mother and every home made their own vinegar which was used, among other things for making the water safe to drink.

In the vinegar tasting room we sampled five different drinking vinegars. I think everybody but the Cruise Director (who has obviously been there many times) were quite dubious. But Mattias, the chef, taught us how to drink it. First, they don’t serve it in shot glasses, because people would drink it like a shot of whiskey. One big gulp. When you do this, all you taste is the acid after-bite and that’s why most of us had scrunched up faces. The estate serves it in a tall stemmed glass whose volume was about a shot glass full.

Before each selection we waited while Mattias explained the history of that particular vinegar and how it would be used. (For cooking it’s an accent, not like the cheap industrial brands you get in HEB. Together we sipped and let the vinegar rest on our palate for a few moments to savor the flavor (much like drinking an aperitif or brandy) before swollowing it.

Our first wine actually was an aperitif vinegar. Ficus. Every name in the estate line is significant we found out. This was a fig vinegar and was quite sweet. To my surprise, it was delicious!

The second was named Casanova. Named after the famous bon vivant, it also had a smooth taste. The bread and chocolates they served in between tastings to clear the palate was made with this vinegar.

The third was named from the recipe from Hilga of Bergnin (sp?) who founded several nunneries in the region, could read a write and left over 500 recipes that cooked with vinegar. It was named “The Tears of Angels” and was superb.

The fourth was another aperitif or post-dinner drink for digestion. It was named “Cleopatra’s Tears.” Turns out she drank it daily to counter the effects of being poisoned (rather common way to kill of the hierarchy don cha know.) She told Marc Anthony she was going to have the most expensive dinner in the world, took the largest pearl from her necklace, dissolved it in the vinegar and drank it.

The last, whose name I can’t remember, was medicinal. Mattias has asthma and drinks a spoonful every morning instead of medicine or inhalers. I bought one of the other medicinal vinegars which was for the stomach and bowels…essentially a probiotic.

Unfortunately they cannot ship to the US because of FDA regulation (way too expensive for the small vinegar estate to pay for certification) so I had to buy small bottles to carry home in my luggage. Looks like one of my stops in Amsterdam is going to be a department store to buy a second suitcase for all the “goodies” I’m buying.

Another excellent supper. Filets of a local fish whose flesh looked like salmon (pink) but was twice as delicious. I continue to marvel at how Milen, the Restaurant Manger, bends over backwards to make sure he meets my dietary needs. I still have him stumped as to why I can eat butter but not other dairy products.

Off to bed. Day of rest tomorrow rather than a walking tour of Frankfurt. Want to make sure I have enough energy to do Cologne.

If you want to see today’s pictures, click here.