Vinegar: My Secret Ingredient

Vinegar: My Secret Ingredient

I’ve been at the stove a lot over the past week or so, and right next to a back burner is my bottle of rice vinegar. Throughout the week, I’ve splashed vinegar in a number of dishes, the recipes for which did not call for it, to wit:

• Making some broccoli rabe with pignolas and raisins, I surreptitiously gave the steaming pan a shot of the sharp stuff.

• Sautéing crimini mushrooms in butter and marsala, I sprinkled on some “sour wine.”

• Cooking up a pan of Eggs in Purgatory (eggs poached in tomato sauce) on Christmas day, I let loose with some of this tart condiment to perk up the dish.

All these meals got uncharacteristic raves, and I have to think this praise was due in no small part to the sour dimension, the acidic treble note that vinegar strums on the tongue.

One of the theories for why catsup is the ideal and universal condiment is that it hits many major taste centers: sweet, salty, umami...and sour.

Adding a little vinegar seems to help fill out the flavor profile of many preparations.

I like vinegar.

David “Sourpuss” Hammond

It was not that long ago in my amateur cooking career when I discovered that a splash of good vinegar at the end of a cooking process can often brighten and sharpen the flavor profile of a dish (especially green vegetables).

Since then I've kept many vinegars on hand. From Chinese black vinegar to simple, cheap rice wine vinegars, to a nice gifted bottle of guajillo-infused champagne vinegar, I can't cook without it.

Best,
Michael

A tablespoon of Balsamic in a pot of lentil soup at the end is pure magic.

Oh, yeah!

I just recently got some Banyuls and sherry vinegar at Fox & Obel and I've been putting them in everything. The Banyuls especially.

using acid as a part of the seasoning process is something that i remember as an "aha!" moment in my career as a chef.

learning to season is perhaps the most elementary and difficult technique that a cook employs, since, at its essence, it entails learning how to taste.

i often use tabasco sauce to finish or season dishes that don't really call for heat. when people give me funny looks, i explain that it's not the heat that i'm after, it's the vinegar....the acidity.

like salt, acidity, when correctly applied, amplifies all the other flavors present in a dish, without calling attention to itself at all. dishes don't taste acidic, they simply taste more like the components that make up the dish.

Vinegar in meat dishes is one of my favorite ways to finish a dish. There's a lamb stew with green beans (long cooked like southerners know how to) and vinegar that is an old favorite.

I also use a huge dollop of vinegar in my preserved figs, which are done up in black currant juice with bay, pepper, cinnamon, clove, ginger, lemon peel, sugar and cider vinegar. I don't can them, but put them in jars hot from the dishwasher and keep them in the fridge. I hit on the vinegar as a way to enhance their life, but while they have always been favorably reviewed, their reviews went up a big notch when I added the vinegar. It's probably 4-6 parts juice to one part vinegar.

That lamb stew is exactly what this thread made me think of. (The one I make I got out of Marcella Hazan decades ago.) She calls for just red wine vin. I use 1/3 to 1/2 balsamic. It is pure wonderfulness and the vin. is essentially the only flavoring agent in the stew aside from the lamb and the beans.

I extend this principle to the squeeze of fresh lemon that i also use for finishing any number of things.

I believe that in addition to the flavor benefit, a few drops of vinegar in the poaching water will cause poached eggs to hold a nice neat disk shape rather than extending wispy tentacles throughout the water. (Assuming of course you're not already using a fancy poacher with little wells for each egg.)

Mr. Barolo,

In the case of eggs, most definitely, a trick my grandmother taught me. Your belief is a) justified; b) true and you can engage your local philosopher as to whether it thus constitutes c) knowledge.

Always use white vinegar as eggs will pick up other tastes.

Yes, I believe I did get that recipe originally from Marcella Hazan, although as you say it was decades ago and I have been making it, and others like it, by feel for a long long time.

I'm a big vinegar fan myself. Although ridiculously expensive, my current favorite is Minus Eight vinegar from Canada. This stuff is evidently made essentially from eiswein , with grapes that have been allowed to ripen and then freeze on the vine before harvesting. The effect is remarkable, resulting in a vinegar having a depth and complexity rivaling the best Balsamic and Sherry vinegars (although completely different from either of these). Very hard to find, I get it from Trotters to go.

I'm also very fond of sherry vinegars and feel that the older Jerez types represent a fine bargain.. One trick I employ to make them even better is to add a good dose of sweet Pedro Ximenez sherry to the bottle. Really spectacular (I read about doing this someplace, but can't recall exactly where)..

Any vinegar drinkers out there? No doubt many folks here have already heard, but this is a big thing in Japan.

I was offered some drinking vinegar on my first trip to H-Mart. It wasn't awful, but I didn't decide I needed to make a habit out of it.

germuska wrote:Any vinegar drinkers out there? No doubt many folks here have already heard, but this is a big thing in Japan.

I was offered some drinking vinegar on my first trip to H-Mart. It wasn't awful, but I didn't decide I needed to make a habit out of it.

It's my understanding that a sip of 25 year-old Balsamic is enjoyed in places like Modena, and in Chicago I enjoy me a glass of Duchesse de Bourgogne, which has a very vinegary nose.

I'm not quite sure when it's appropriate to serve a glass of vinegar. As aperitif or digestif? Doesn't seem like drinking it with dinner is the right idea.

Hammond

germuska wrote:Any vinegar drinkers out there? No doubt many folks here have already heard, but this is a big thing in Japan.

I was offered some drinking vinegar on my first trip to H-Mart. It wasn't awful, but I didn't decide I needed to make a habit out of it.

Once, while getting a shoe shine in an O'Hare men's room, the African American gentleman who was attending to my footwear took a momentary time out to pour a shot glass of cider vinegar from a gallon bottle that he had stashed behind the shoe shine stand. When I asked him if it was really Wild Turkey, he told me that it was, indeed, cider vinegar just as the label said. His grandfather, who lived to 107, drank 3 shots a day and he was following suit.

stevez wrote:Once, while getting a shoe shine in an O'Hare men's room, the African American gentleman who was attending to my footwear took a momentary time out to pour a shot glass of cider vinegar from a gallon bottle that he had stashed behind the shoe shine stand. When I asked him if it was really Wild Turkey, he told me that it was, indeed, cider vinegar just as the label said. His grandfather, who lived to 107, drank 3 shots a day and he was following suit.

Ah yes, the wonder cure.

I seem to be collecting interesting vinegars over time: Chinese black, Thai coconut (which is pretty mildly flavored, I'm not sure it adds a lot to a dish), balsamic, cider, tarragon...

One thing I've noticed is that vinegar or other acids (e.g. lime) greatly increases the heat effect of chiles, and the chiles increase the flavorfulness of most of everything else, which is why good fries with ketchup are the ideal accompaniment for an Italian Beef with hot giardinera.

I left a bottle of Beaujolais in the refrigerator a bit too long last week and found it o.k. despite that. Does that qualify?

JoelF wrote:which is why good fries with ketchup are the ideal accompaniment for an Italian Beef with hot giardinera.

I've always found that the sweetness of ketchup dulls the taste of everything it comes near, but I guess that's why they keep it in bottles and packets.

kl5 wrote:

stevez wrote:Once, while getting a shoe shine in an O'Hare men's room, the African American gentleman who was attending to my footwear took a momentary time out to pour a shot glass of cider vinegar from a gallon bottle that he had stashed behind the shoe shine stand. When I asked him if it was really Wild Turkey, he told me that it was, indeed, cider vinegar just as the label said. His grandfather, who lived to 107, drank 3 shots a day and he was following suit.

Ah yes, the wonder cure.

Maybe he wasn't African American after all.

As a wonderful side effect of drinking apple cider vinegar every day, we discovered that it brings a healthy, rosy glow to one's complexion! This is great news if you suffer from a pale countenance.

stevez wrote:

As a wonderful side effect of drinking apple cider vinegar every day, we discovered that it brings a healthy, rosy glow to one's complexion! This is great news if you suffer from a pale countenance.

Got a bottle of decently aged (allegedly 10-20 years old, which is quite a range, but I’m just saying what I was told) Villa Manodori balsamic using the gift certificate generated from a recent customer complaint…and good lord, what an excellent liquid. I splashed some on chick peas with salt, I drizzled a little over finocchio, dipped strawberries into it, and drank it straight. Thick, sweet and deep, just knockout aceto. I’m not sure I can ever go back to the thin stuff The Wife brings home. I have been to the mountaintop, or perhaps just the foothills, and I’m eager to try the more refined varieites of this knockout condiment.

Incidentally, Fox & Obel’s price of about $22 for 550 ml seems very reasonable (I did a few searches and found the going price on most sites significantly higher).

David “Old Piss & Vinegar” Hammond

I don't know if I have posted this before, but my absolute favorite vinegar maker is Doktorenhof of Germany. They make an incredible range of products, from 'vinegars for health' (a la the post to the news about Japanese vinegar drink sales) to fine 'finishing' vinegars. Some are packaged in hand-blown glass.

Back in my cooking days at the Four Seasons in Atlanta, our Exec Chef would finish off every fish dish with a spritz of Doktorenhof that came, conveniently, with an atomizer. The flavor was delicate, the acidity low. The impact on the fish was to provide a sweet, barely perceptible acidic note, to the otherwise fatty, salty, and peppery flesh (we cooked in butter).

The importer of this product seems to change every few years. I ordered several bottles a few years ago but they were the from the large production vinegars -- lovely but not delicate like the limited edition (and very expensive) bottles we used to use.

I think one of my favorite new items on the Doktorenhof website is the "Doktorenhof Distillery" -- for 405 euros you too can make brandy at home...as long as your neighbors don't tell the 'authorities' about your illegal activities.

http://www.vinegarman.com/index.html

Note the guide for ETs.

-ramon

While exploring the shopping emporia in Niles the other day, I picked up three new vinegars. A date vinegar at Zandar Foods, a persimmon and a pomegranate vinegar at Hana Supermarket. The pomegranate is labelled for drinking, 3:1, which the women at the checkout counter took pains to point out.

Haven't tried them yet, but plan to play with them this weekend.

if you want the medical benefits of vinegar, it's best to use raw unfiltered w/the "mother". bragg is a good brand, found in health stores or whole foods. i have a close friend w/liver failure. he swears that it is helping keep him alive. as his prognosis was terminal years ago, his dr (on the cover of this months chicago magazine, just shakes his head in awe and tells him to keep doing whatever he's doing. many of the side effects of that disease are also what they say vinegar can be beneficial for, in particular the skin conditions that can arrise that he's kept to a minimum.

he's also very rigorous about his sodium intake, but makes an exception for an ocassional al's. ya gotta eat.

jazzfood wrote:if you want the medical benefits of vinegar, it's best to use raw unfiltered w/the "mother". bragg is a good brand, found in health stores or whole foods. i have a close friend w/liver failure. he swears that it is helping keep him alive. as his prognosis was terminal years ago, his dr (on the cover of this months chicago magazine, just shakes his head in awe and tells him to keep doing whatever he's doing. many of the side effects of that disease are also what they say vinegar can be beneficial for, in particular the skin conditions that can arrise that he's kept to a minimum.

How much does he injest every day?

he and now i, ingest 2 teaspoons in 8 oz of filtered or spring water 2-3 times a day. no big deal. you can sweeten it if you like w/honey or maple syrup or put it in apple juice or ginger ale if you prefer. supposed to be great for many things including weight loss, cholesterol and all sorts of allergies. this is an old cure all for whatever ails ya.

A drink of vinegar water sweetened with a bit of honey also cools you off on a hot day--do not serve on ice, just room temp.

I've tried this tonic recently and I find it refreshing unsweetened. I can see why vinegar drinks are popular in Japan.

Are there many other raw, unfiltered vinegars out there besides Braggs?

i'm not certain but braggs seems to be the benchmark. i'm sure w/a little research you'll have the answer. main thing is raw, unfiltered w/the "mother".

jazzfood wrote:if you want the medical benefits of vinegar, it's best to use raw unfiltered w/the "mother".

Interesting. I saw this a few days ago(BBC link)

I was reading through some translations of cuneiform recipes (Sumerian/ Akkadian) recovered from tells and currently stored in a Yale collection of Babylonian clay tablets, and I came across this recipe for francolin (related to quail, though I’m going to use chicken):

Split the bird open, wash it in cold water and place it in a kettle. You remove it from the fire and wash it again in cold water; sprinkle it with vinegar; combine with mint and salt and rub bird with mixture thoroughly.*

So here we have a receipe from the oldest known cook book (2,000 years before Apicius), and one of the main ingredients is…vinegar! Shouldn’t be surprising, of course, and the super simple combo of mint, salt and vinegar sounds quite appealing.



Let me take this opportunity to plug my favorite museum in the world: The Oriental Institute, 1155 E 58th.

*Jean Bottero, The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004: 32