Health + Wellness

Christine’s Pantry Essentials



Today our Food Editor takes us on a trip through her pantry to give us some tips on essentials. This week: Let’s Talk Vinegar!

 

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Human taste is made up of five flavors: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, and umami. In the typical American diet, sweetness and saltiness are the only two parts of the palate that get developed. I think our enjoyment of those two flavors is inhibited by not balancing them with the other three flavors; a little espresso in a dark chocolate brownie and the bitterness suddenly makes the sweet buttery treat more thoughtfully savored; sweet caramelized onions with a splash of tangy cider vinegar go from cloying to tantalizing, and the craze for salted caramel? That flavor combination works for a reason! Broadening our palates to balance and appreciate all five tastes is important in really enjoying a healthful diet without feeling stuck in a rut.

Vinegars are a really simple and healthy way to use acidity and sourness to really enhance and brighten whatever they are served with. I’ve found that when I think I want more salt, I often really want a squeeze of lemon juice to bring out flavor.

I never buy salad dressing anymore, partly because I looked at the ingredient list and didn’t like what I saw, partly because I couldn’t use up the bottles fast enough, and partly because I realized that with a few great ingredients, a really delicious salad dressing was at the most two minutes away any time I needed it. Vinegars are one of those key pantry ingredients because they add not only the brightness of acidity that a dressing needs but because the variety of flavors the vinegars bring to a dish can enhance flavors like nothing else.

Vinegar is like a lot of things in life- you get out of it what you put into it. Buy vinegars that are made out of good stuff, vinegars that are unpasteurized so you get the pro-biotic benefits and their fresher brighter flavor and try to avoid vinegars with added salt since salt is often used to smooth over the taste of a poorly made product. And any time you can shop where you are able to taste before buying is a huge bonus.

Use it up! Time, sunlight, and oxygen dull the flavors of vinegar so keep a tight lid on the bottle, keep it out of warm sunny spots, and use it while the flavors are fresh and bright.

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Here are my essential vinegars:

Apple Cider Vinegar – Apple cider vinegar gets a lot of attention for its health benefits, but I love it for its flavor! A fresh, organic and unpasteurized cider vinegar will taste like apples and will impart that flavor of fruit to honey vinaigrette, barbeque sauce, in baked beans, or to glaze roasted winter squash. If you’re cooking with fruit, apple cider vinegar will highlight the fruit flavor- toss your apple slices in a spoonful next time you make an apple tart!

Rice Vinegar – Made from fermented rice wine, this vinegar is a staple in Asian pantries. You may find it plain or seasoned. Plain is a softer, less sharp vinegar without a powerful flavor of its own. I use it when I want the herbs or oil to be highlighted, like in a bright, fresh dressing with mint and cilantro. Seasoned, which is used to flavor sushi rice, is much sweeter and less sharp and isn’t a good substitute for plain rice vinegar.

Wine Vinegar, Red, White, and Champagne – Just like the wines themselves, wine vinegars vary widely in flavor, and can be used in anything from classic vinaigrette to a marinade to sauces and soups. Which vinegar you use is really your personal preference, but try a bold red wine vinegar with a bold panzanella salad or peperonata, white wine vinegar in a hearty vegetable soup, and champagne vinaigrette with a tender butter lettuce salad. A little splash of wine vinegar in a sauce or gravy can brighten up flavors that might otherwise be too rich.

Sherry Vinegar  – Sherry vinegar is one of my favorites, a secret weapon that makes everything it touches taste more interesting. There are a lot of types of sherry vinegar and the flavor will depend on the type of sherry used to make the vinegar, how long and in what it was aged. It’s always nice if you can buy from a store that allows you to taste a few before you purchase. I prefer a little flavor of toasted almond, a dryer vinegar as opposed to a really sweet version. It’s nice with sheep’s milk cheese like Manchego, sprinkled over olives, and one of the tastiest things I ever made was crisp pork belly cooked with sherry vinegar and smoked paprika with wilted mustard greens over buttery polenta.

Malt Vinegar  – Malt vinegar is made from beer and has that sort of hearty, mellow , nutty undertone you would expect from beer. It’s typically used as a condiment on fried food like fish and chips. I also like it in combination with apple cider vinegar when I want just a hint of the apple flavor. It is used for pickling and to make savory/sweet chutneys

Balsamic Vinegar  – Balsamic vinegar is different than any of the other vinegars we’ve talked about. More of a syrup than a vinegar, it is made with grape juice rather than wine and aged in wood barrels for incredible concentrated depth of flavor. It was once used as a sweetener instead of honey or sugar and it helps to think of it that way when deciding how to use it. Drizzle over fresh strawberries (or over a scoop of strawberry sorbet), or dip a crumb of aged Parmigianno Reggiano into it and savor the rich flavor.

White Distilled Vinegar – Simply acetic acid and water, this vinegar belongs in every kitchen, just not in the food! Unless you make a lot of pickles and need the specific acidity level you get from white vinegar, you’ll find the intense flavorless acidity of white vinegar a little boring and harsh after trying some of these other vinegars. I use it for pickling but mostly as a natural cleaner.

 

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