If you are an avid home chef, you already know that vinegar is a pantry powerhouse with limitless uses. Working vinegar into your culinary toolkit is an excellent way to add a punch of flavor and personality to a host of dishes, especially salad dressings, marinades, chutneys, sauces and soups. At the same time, vinegar may be good for your health, possibly helping to control blood sugar and lower cholesterol. Indeed, there are no reasons not to keep vinegar in your culinary toolkit.
What Is Vinegar?
The word “vinegar” is derived from the French phrase “vin aigre,” meaning sour wine. It is a highly acidic cooking liquid that has been used for centuries to flavor, pickle and preserve.
Vinegar is a cooking liquid and flavoring agent with a tangy, sour taste which is generally made from grapes, grains, sugar or spirits. It gets its flavor profile from its high concentration of acetic acid, a solution obtained by fermenting alcohol or sugars. It is used to flavor dishes — often to add a brightness or a “punchy” flavor to whatever you are making — and as a preserving and pickling agent to keep foods fresh.
The Science of Vinegar as a Cooking Agent
What does vinegar do as a cooking agent? First and foremost, it is used to flavor. Depending on the variety, vinegar can bring a sour, tangy, sweet, mild, malty, woody or even buttery flavor to your dish. It can also be used to color or discolor foods. Because of its unique ability to break down proteins, vinegar is also used as a marinade to help tenderize meats and veggies. It is also used to “quick pickle” veggies because it helps to speed up fermentation and creates good bacteria that makes food last longer.
The Basics of Cooking with Vinegar
- Know Your Types — As previously mentioned, vinegar comes in many varieties, each of which has its own unique flavor profile. Try them plain or as a base for flavored vinegars to dress up all sorts of foods. The most popular types of vinegar to keep in your pantry include:
- Balsamic. The crème de la crème of vinegars, balsamic vinegar is the cherry-colored liquid often seen drizzled across summer veggies. It is a grape-based vinegar which is known for its sweet, bold, decadent and rich flavor profile. Try our RAPTURE Balsamic Vinegar — a lovingly crafted zinfandel vinegar made from California grapes and Triple Crown blackberries — to see what this kind of vinegar is all about.
FAQs
Depending on the variety, vinegar can bring a sour, tangy, sweet, mild, malty, woody or even buttery flavor to your dish. It can also be used to color or discolor foods. Because of its unique ability to break down proteins, vinegar is also used as a marinade to help tenderize meats and veggies.
What does cooking with vinegar do? ›
Vinegar is one of the most versatile ingredients you can use when you're cooking. It adds zing to salad dressings, tang to barbecue marinades and rubs, and even makes food look more appealing. Cooking with vinegar changes the whole flavor and appearance of many dishes.
What are the benefits of cooking with white vinegar? ›
White vinegar may have significant health benefits due to its acetic acid content, including blood sugar control, weight management, reduced cholesterol and antimicrobial properties.
Is there a difference between cooking vinegar and regular vinegar? ›
Acetic Acid Makes the Difference in Vinegar for Cleaning
The distilled white vinegar in the food aisle is 95 percent water and 5 percent acetic acid. In contrast, cleaning vinegar is 94 percent water and 6 percent acetic acid. While a 1 percent difference doesn't seem like a big deal, it actually is.
Is it OK to cook with cleaning vinegar? ›
You should absolutely never cook with or consume cleaning vinegar. Most cleaning vinegar has a warning label on the packaging. Unlike cooking vinegar, it may not be tested for impurities that can be dangerous to the human body.
What not to do with vinegar? ›
Below, we're sharing five items to always avoid cleaning with vinegar, plus what to use instead.
- Countertops. ...
- Electronic Devices. ...
- Hardwood Floors. ...
- Waxed Furniture. ...
- Aluminum and Cast-Iron Pans.
If too much vinegar is added to a recipe, it can make the dish overly sour and unbalanced in flavor. This can also make the texture of the dish unappetizing.
Which is better to cook with white vinegar or apple cider vinegar? ›
White Vinegar for Cooking
White vinegar is an extremely versatile ingredient that can be used more often than apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, and balsamic vinegar. This is because it has a neutral flavor and scent profile that doesn't interfere with other ingredients.
Is distilled vinegar the same as white vinegar? ›
White and distilled are types of vinegar. They differ fundamentally in their acetic acid content. White, also known as spirit vinegar, has 5% to 20% acetic acid. Distilled vinegar, on the other hand, is better for cooking, flavoring, food preservation and as a natural home remedy.
Which vinegar is not used for cooking? ›
It is made by distilling vinegar with steam heat, which kills all nutrients and essentially boils the liquid down to pure acetic acid. For this reason, you really do not want to use distilled white vinegar for most cooking tasks.
Add 1 cup of vinegar to a gallon of hot water, add white clothing so it is fully submerged, and soak overnight. Run the clothing through the appropriate wash cycle with laundry detergent as usual. You can also add vinegar to the rinse cycle to help reduce detergent buildup that can dull clothes.
What balances out vinegar in cooking? ›
For more pronounced sour balance issues, try honey, sugar, or cream and if all that fails a pinch of bicarbonate of soda will bring some alkaline to the dish to neutralise the acidity.
Is it OK to cook with vinegar? ›
Working vinegar into your culinary toolkit is an excellent way to add a punch of flavor and personality to a host of dishes, especially salad dressings, marinades, chutneys, sauces and soups. At the same time, vinegar may be good for your health, possibly helping to control blood sugar and lower cholesterol.
What does vinegar do to shrimp? ›
Don't forget the secret ingredient in the boil: apple cider vinegar. It makes the shrimp easier to peel.
What does vinegar do to meat? ›
Balsamic vinegar is a good marinade for red meats because it helps to tenderize them. The acid in the vinegar helps to break down some of the protein and fat in the beef, which makes it softer. The balsamic vinegar also adds a sweet flavor while tenderizing, without having to add any sugar.
What happens if you heat up vinegar? ›
However, when you boil vinegar, the water element is boiled off, and the acetic acid is left in a more concentrated volume. When vinegar is boiled, the concentration of acetic acid vapours can reach unsafe levels. Breathing in these vapours can cause irritation to the lungs, respiratory system, and eyes.
What are the benefits of adding vinegar? ›
Vinegar is good for lowering blood glucose levels, helping with weight loss and boosting skin health. It also has antibacterial properties. Today, more and more people are discovering its health benefits and using it as a go-to remedy for everything from minor ailments to chronic diseases.
Why does vinegar make things taste better? ›
Adding an acidic component (foods we'd consider to be sour) almost always enhances the flavors of a dish. A splash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon adds a brightness to foods that often doesn't occur on its own.
