Verjuice

verjuice literally ‘green juice’, is an acid liquid obtained from crabapples, sour grapes, and other unripe fruit. Familiar to the Romans, it was much used in medieval European cooking (taillevent uses it as a seasoning in 40 per cent of his recipes), and lingered on until the 19th century. Theodora FitzGibbon (1976) remarks that its use in western kitchens was eventually superseded, almost completely, by the familiar instruction to add a dash of lemon juice (to whatever). Thus the agraz of Sephardi Jews and the agresto of the Italians lost their grapes and gained the lemon (as did avgolémono). However, it has continued to be an ingredient in certain condiments; and its use in Europe was revived on a small scale towards the end of the 20th century (see Beer, 2001).