What is Vinegar? Vinegar was discovered thousands of years ago - probably by accident. Somewhere an aspiring wine maker got distracted and left a keg of what was supposed to be wine gp too long. Maybe he had to go fight off the invading Visigoths, maybe that keg rolled under a haystack, or maybe he already had too much of last year's wine crop and just forgot about it. But when he finally got back to it, he discovered that the wine had gone sour. Indeed, "vin aigre" is French for sour wine.
Vinegar is the end product of a two-step process that starts with any kind of sugar. The original sugar is first fermented into alcohol. That alcohol, with the help of a bacteria, is then further fermented into an acetic acid which is vinegar. So our red and white wine vinegars come from the grapes of the original wine. Cider vinegar starts from apples. Malt vinegar is usually from barley malt and rice vinegars come from rice sugars. Distilled vinegar is made from dilute distilled alcohol. Balsamic vinegar is a special kind of grape vinegar originating from a particular grape in Modena, Italy. It is highly regulated there, much less so in the United States. True traditional balsamic vinegar will say "of Modena" on the label.
According to the FDA, all commercially available vinegar must be at least 4% acid. Vinegar is largely acetic acid, but it is not
only acetic acid. There are many minerals, vitamins and other goodies in there, depending on the original source.
Vinegar History & Trivia. One of the earliest written mentions of vinegar was in the 5th century BC by Hippocrates. It is known to have been used in both medicinal and culinary traditions for centuries. It was an important preservative, increasing in popularity in the 16th century in England when salted preserves began to lose favor. Diluted in water, it was a common drink of the Roman legionaires. Cleopatra is said to have won a bet by dissolving a pearl earring in vinegar and drinking it. Balsamic vinegar of Modena was at one time considered so valuable that it was included in the dowries of ladies of nobility.
Today you can visit the International Vinegar Museum in Roslyn, South Dakota. They also have a Vinegar Festival there each summer. You can find lots of vinegar information at their website:
Vinegar manVinegar Uses Today. You might be amazed at the variety of things you can do with vinegar! Let's start with the what's probably the most obvious.
Cooking. Vinegar is perhaps best known as part of a salad dressing. According to the Vinegar Institute, specialty vinegars are on the rise in the market. The top 10 global vinegar flavors in 2005 were apple, garlic, herbs, raspberry, fig, lemon, cranberry, honey, shallot and grape. With just a little imagination, you could have a different, flavorful, healthy dressing on a salad every night of the week! Cooking with vinegar generally brings out the flavor of food. And of course, it makes great pickles of many sorts!
You can infuse any vinegar with your own herbs or fruit. Using fresh or dried herbs and fruit, simply cover them with the vinegar of your choice and let them sit for several weeks to let the flavors mingle well. Recipes with vinegar can be found at the Vinegar Institute website at this link:
Vinegar Institute. If you Google "making herbal vinegar" you will find a number of sites with ideas on how best to do this.
Cleaning. Vinegar is an incredibly effective, versatile, inexpensive and completely non-toxic cleaning agent! Being an acid, it is good at removing mineral deposits and stains. It is a good deodorizer. It might be best known as a great window cleaner - mix with water and get a crisp, streak-free window every time (unless you dry with a dirty rag - hello)! Vinegar is also a good disinfectant. You can use it to wash your fruits and vegetables and clean your cutting boards.
In fact, if you use it along side - not mixed with - hydrogen peroxide, you get a sanitizer extraordinaire. In a study done at Virginia Polytechnic and published in 1998 In
Science News, using a spray of 3% hydrogen peroxide and a spray of either distilled or cider vinegar one after the other (in either order), killed virtually all salmonella, shigella or E. coli on heavily contaminated food and surfaces. This was more effective than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleanser. Using the pair of sprays was 10X more effective than using one alone and more effective than mixing the two together. Certainly it's cheaper than fancy kitchen cleansers AND if there's a bit that didn't get rinsed from your food, neither of these ingredients are harmful to you.
The link to the Vinegar Institute provided above has many great tips and ideas for using vinegar as a cleaner. Give it a try!
Medicine. In years past, vinegar was often used in medicine-making as the base for herbal extracts. It fell out of favor in part when medicines started being made in larger quantities and had to have a longer shelf life. Vinegar lasts a long time, but not as long as alcohol which became the base of choice for most herbals. For your own use, however, vinegar is still a good choice. It's more nourishing than alcohol and adds some nutrients of its own to the mix.
There are many home remedies and folk lore that claim vinegar will cure everything from acne to yeast infections. In reality, there's not a lot of study going on out there to prove or disprove this inexpensive, non-toxic intervention. But remember, lack of study doesn't mean it doesn't work! If you decide to try it out for something, take note of the cautions below and let me know how it works for you!
Topical Use. Given that we know vinegar is anti-microbial, it makes sense that it would function this way on our skin as well as your cutting board. It may be sponged on the body to help cleanse and tone the skin, to reduce perspiration odor and it may help relieve itching and inflammation of the skin. It may be used in a gargle solution for sore throats. It can be used as a hair rinse and to nourish the scalp. There
is one published study for a topical use of vinegar. Next time you're diving at the Great Barrier Reef, keep some vinegar on the boat as it has been proven to stop the discharge of venom from the Box Jellyfish of Australia. In the case of a bad sting, it may be lifesaving.
Internal Use. There is actually preliminary research showing a possible benefit of apple cider vinegar in diabetes and cholesterol management. Confirming research may be slow in coming given the robust market for pharmaceuticals in both these categories.
Many people take a small amount of apple cider vinegar to help with their digestion. Given that many digestive difficulties come from a lack of acid in our stomachs, it makes sense that this would help in that situation. A more acidic environment in the stomach also helps with the absorption of some minerals and nutrients, calcium in particular. Vinegar is also said to relieve arthritis pain. A case can be made for the biochemistry and physiologic relationship of calcium deposits and blood and stomach acidity, but vinegar has never been clinically proven to ease or cure arthritis.
Cautions. It is important to remember that vinegar is, indeed, an acid. Acids can be tough on many surfaces. When taking it orally, it should be diluted in water. This will help protect your tooth enamel and also your esophageal lining. If you know you have a stomach ulcer, taking vinegar probably isn't the greatest idea right now.
There is also a theoretical risk of messing with your potassium levels if taken in high dose and/or over a prolonged period of time. This could mean that care should be taken if you are are medications that also disturb potassium levels - like some diuretics and some heart and diabetes medications.
There are formulations out there that provide vinegar in pill form. Be aware that there is no regulation over these formulations and there is one documented case of a woman having problems from such a product. Investigations after this case showed a wide variety of acidity in these over-the-counter products.
Whether you start with the kitchen window, the salad bowl or the medicine cabinet, I think there are a lot of great reasons to stock up on your vinegar supply! Enjoy!
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and myrrh. And so you were possibly looking forward to February when I was going to give you all the wonderful reasons to continue your dark chocolate habit! But mixing it up can be 