Does anybody out there understand vinegars?
I have a recipe that calls for "rice wine vinegar".
I looked at the co-op and found "rice vinegar" and
"wine vinegar", but not "rice wine vinegar".  Zingerman's
also didn't have any, but they've heard of it and
think you might find some at Mana.

Does it matter what I use in my recipe?  I've
got cider vinegar and some other kind of vinegar
here in the house already.

What other types of vinegar are worth knowing about?
(I usually think of vinegar as vile-smelling stuff
that's useful for cleaning, but there's *got* to be
more to vinegar than that, or there wouldn't be so
many exotic expensive varieties, right?)

25 responses total.

You can get rice wine vinegar at any of the Asian groceries and at Big Ten.

I like rice vinegar a LOT.  It's wonderful in salads...its mild flavor does
not interfere with a good extra-virgin olive oil.

I've always wondered what "Balsamic" vinegar is.  No one has ever been able
to tell me.  Is it really made from balsa wood? :-)
 

In small doses, vinegar is a spicy addition to alal sorts of stuff.
As far as the particular ingredients making up a vinegar, Idunno.

Balsamic Vinegar is aged in balsa barrels, as I understand it.  It's a 
wonderfully subtle vinagar--I use it in salads because it doesn't leave
that pickled feeling in my mouth.

Thank you! 

   Its also real dark and pungent.

   The various vinegars are well worth experimenting with.  There really
are differences between them.

i ended up leaving the vinegar out of my recipe, because the recipe
said to add vinegar to correct the seasoning, but the seasoning didn't
taste "incorrect".  :)

My understanding is that balsamic vinegar is mixture of (barley) malt and wine
which is then fermented into vinegar and aged in small oak barrels.

Uh oh.  A difference of opinion!....My Random house unabridged doesn't have
balsamic, but it does have balsa, balsam, balsam apple, balsam capivi, 
balsam family, balsam fir, balsamiferous, balsaminaceous, balsam of fir,
balsam of Peru, balsam of tolu, balsam pear, balsam poplar, and balsam
wolly aphid.

So, I'm now as lost as ever.

At least, this is what Deborah, the retail manager at Zingerman's, told me o
once upon a shopping expedition.  And balsamic vinegar does seem to (me at
least) have a malty sort of sweetness.  By the way, you should taste some of
the older balsamic vinegars that Zingerman's carries --- the 20-80 year old
ones. As the vinegar ages, it (and wine or anything else aged in cooperware)
loses water via evaporation.  The older balsamic vinegars are *much* more
intense than the cheaper younger ones.  Of course, the idea of paying top-shelf
whisky prices for what amounts to spoilt wine seems a little off the deep end
to me.

Yeah, well, you know, that balsam-kind of vinegar.  Yeah.  Well, what
does Random house know?  They don't use the stuff...

    *80* year old vinegar?  I've got to try it.

    It isn't that often that an adult gets to taste something older
than they are.

I find that small amounts of vinegar, when used in a sauce/stew/soup invoke
a very similar taste to table salt.  It sounds strange, but works very well 
(as was mentioned) to *correct* the seasoning of soups, etc.  I started this
thinking it must be better, healthwise, but I'm not convinced that my body
finds acetic acid less brutal than good ole NaCl.  Proceeding blindly, both
lemon and lime juice, being acidic, have the same effect, with an added 
dimension.  And I can at least hope they are somewhat natural.  Anyone 
with a similar experience?  Has anyone tried the tomato-lime-tortilla soup
from the Sundays_at_Moosewood cookbook?  

Another note of (maybe) interest is that using a tablespoon or so of vinegar
to a pot of soup stock that contains animal bones will, in addition to
the slight flavour anhancement trm mentioned, provide about 3 times the
mineral content for your soup.

Ohh, really! Now that's an idea I never even considred! But now I'll
try it!
  
Does anyone happen to know the chemical composition of vinegar, like
whetehr or not it involves either Na or Cl?

The primary flavor component in vinegar is acetic acid, C2H4O2.  Every
vinegar will also contain many other flavor components: esters, phenols,
fatty acids, ketones, diketones, alcohols, aldehydes (like acetaldehyde)...
Malt vinegars will also contain beta glucans and complex carbohydrates,
and perhaps some free amino nitrates that the bacteria couldn't metabolize.
Wine vinegars will also contain complex carbs, mallic acids, lactic acids,
etcetera.
 
I'm sure I missed some components.

re #16:  Mmmmmm...That makes it sound *so* tasty.

<<slurp!>>

re 17-18: yeah, it's strange, isn't it?  But, for example, acetaldehyde
is "Green Apple."  It's tart, and you feel it at the back of your throat.

(Better living through food chemistry)

  I learned today that if you add a little vinegar to cabbage, you won't be
telling the neighbors what's cooking. 
I have more vinegar hints.

But I *love* the smell of cooking cabbage!  <g>  Well, OK, maybe 
myneighbots don't.  What's more important, I don't love the smell of
last night's cabbage tomorrow and I'll bet that would resolve the 
problem.

White vinegar and water also makes a great window cleaner.

Or just about any other non-porous waterproof surface.  Cheaper / less
dangerous / quicker to clean up than anything else I've heard of.

I would guess that rice wine, like other wines, if left around oxygen will
turn to vinegar.  All oriental food stores sell both rice wine and rice
vinegar, the latter quite cheaply.  China Merchandise north of town has a huge
selection of other exotic foods.   Zingerman's I think sells a book written
by its owner about vinegars.  A local group called Ann Arbor Culinary
Historians will be attending a lecture by the author next spring or maybe in
the winter.  Ask at Zingerman's about the date and join us, or join the AACH
some other Sunday evening (see the Observer).  Rice vinegar smells quite a
bit different from cider vinegar, not having all those fruity substances in
it to start with.  Only about a dollar for a bottle.  Vinegars probably differ
from each other as much as other fermented products like beers and wines,
depends what they are made from.  It is not only acetic acid (except in the
tasteless white distilled variety).  The fermenting organisms change many of
the compounds to other ones.

I am translating something on wines and vinegars.  Does anyone know the
correct English for terms meaning roughly fruit vinegar, archival wine
(aged?), supreme/summit/peak wine, and the English equivalent of Praedikat
(the German, I have seen this on bottles)?

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