Different Kinds of Vinegar

Do you know the difference between balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar and white vinegar? Some I will use on salads, such as this strawberry spinach salad. Others work best for sauces and some are the right choice for pickling. Some are even usable for household cleaning tasks.

How vinegar is made

If you’ve ever left a bottle of wine too long after you opened it and it has started to ferment, then you probably have a basic understanding of how you make vinegar. However, you can’t just let sour wine ferment naturally and expect to get a tasty vinegar. Just like feeding a sourdough starter, there are more steps you need to take.

The first step in making different kinds of vinegar is having yeast consuming sugars in the base you use to create vinegar. This base could be apple cider, another kind of fruit or rice wine. For the second step, you introduce a specific and safe-for-consumption bacteria to cause acetic fermentation.

“I love using fruit vinegars for quick salad dressings. You don’t even need to mix them, just sprinkle on the vinegar and some olive oil for a quick blast of flavor,” said Renee Gardner of Ruthybelle Recipes. “Two of my favorites are peach champagne vinegar and fig balsamic vinegar.”

Making a batch at home

In this article about repurposing food scraps, I discuss using fruit scraps to make DIY vinegar. That is, you can take leftover parts of an apple or even pineapple skins and let them ferment in a clean jar with water and sugar for a couple of weeks. However, without the addition of ingredients you need to get acetic acid, I’m wondering how much it will actually taste like legit vinegar. Worth trying through, right?

Why kinds of vinegar matter

When considering which cooking vinegars to use, it’s important to understand how each can enhance different dishes based on their distinct flavors and acidity. Some vinegars are often connected to specific cuisines.

Did you know that there are vinegars made from French sparkling wine, also known as champagne? And that some vinegars contain unexpected flavors like chocolate? Amanda Luhn of Knoxville Backyard & Beyond loves to use chocolate balsamic vinegar on a strawberry salad. “It is a fun addition that the kids love,” she said.

Many other ingredients serve as the base for vinegars beyond chocolate and champagne. Here are some of the most common types of vinegar, their origins and how to use them — for cooking or, in one instance, cleaning.

Apple cider

Apple cider vinegar really does start with apple cider. Not surprisingly, it has fruity notes. It is ideal to use in certain vinegar-based coleslaws versus mayonnaise-based coleslaw because of how well the vinegar goes with cabbage.

Distilled white

Believe it or not, distilled white vinegar starts as a grain alcohol like you might find in a backyard still. After fermentation, the makers dilute it with water. You might use distilled white vinegar for pickling vegetables or as a household cleaning agent. Just don’t use it on stone surfaces because the high-acidic content will ruin them.

Balsamic

Made with red and white grapes exclusive to Italy, balsamic vinegar is aged in small wooden barrels similar to wine. Some balsamic varieties take 12-25 years to age, which is why this vinegar ends up dark and almost like a syrup. It pairs perfectly with traditional Italian dishes like Caprese salad.

Rice wine

Rice wine vinegar is most often used in Asian dishes, such as copycat slow cooker Panda Express General Tso Chicken. Despite having the word “wine” in its name, it isn’t a wine at all. It comes from sake, a fermented rice-based liquid.

Malt

Malt vinegar comes from malt barley, the precursor to beer. People like malt vinegar with fried food, such as fish and chips, because the sharp flavor cuts through the fattiness of oil frying. Next time I make fries in the air fryer, I’ll try them with malt vinegar.

Red wine

Not surprisingly, red wine vinegar is made from red wine. You might find red wine vinegar made from familiar wine types such as pinot noir, Bordeaux, cabernet or merlot. Many people choose red wine vinegar when making a vinaigrette dressing for something like a pasta salad.

Final notes

Vinegar is far more diverse than most people realize. These days you can find so many types of vinegar at the grocery store and dozens more online. The possibilities are endless for working vinegar into your next recipe.

Portions of this article originally appeared on Food Drink Life.