What Is Vinegar and How Can I Use It?

Apple cider vinegar is fermented apple juice. Yeast turns the sugar into alcohol, then acetobacter bacteria turn that alcohol into acetic acid. Most bottles land at 5 percent acidity, the same strength as standard white vinegar, but the flavor is softer and faintly fruity rather than purely sharp.

That gentler edge is why it shows up across so much of the savory pantry. It sharpens dressings, balances braises, cuts the fat in chili, and carries the tang in barbecue and marinades without the chemical bite of distilled white vinegar.

Raw versions look cloudy because they still hold the "mother," a haze of cellulose and bacteria. It is harmless. Shake it back in.

Red wine vinegar is exactly what it sounds like: red wine that has been fermented a second time until the alcohol turns to acid. It carries some of the wine's color and tannin, which gives it a deeper, slightly fruity bite compared with the pale wine vinegars.

This is the everyday workhorse of Mediterranean and Central European kitchens. It is sharp without being harsh, and it sits at the center of more vinaigrettes and marinades than any other vinegar.

For the basics of how vinegar is made and the general rule about adding acid late, see the main vinegar page. This one focuses on where red wine vinegar earns its place.

White wine vinegar is white wine fermented until its alcohol turns to acid. It is the pale, milder cousin of red wine vinegar, cleaner and less assertive, with none of the color that would tint a delicate dish.

That restraint is the point. When a recipe needs brightness but should stay light on the palate and light in color, this is the vinegar that does the job without taking over.

For how vinegar is made in general and the rule about adding acid late, see the main vinegar page. Here the focus is where white wine vinegar beats the alternatives.

Balsamic vinegar is the sweet, dark, syrupy member of the vinegar family, and it comes from Italy rather than from a bottle of wine gone sour. Instead of fermenting finished wine, it starts with grape must, the whole pressed juice of white Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes, skins and seeds included.

That juice is cooked down to a concentrate before it ever ferments, which is why even the cheap stuff tastes rounder and sweeter than red wine vinegar. The grape sugar is the whole personality.

For more on the wider vinegar family and the general rule of adding acid late, see the main vinegar page. Balsamic plays by slightly different rules because of all that sugar.

Rice vinegar is brewed from fermented rice, and it is the gentlest bottle on the vinegar shelf: about 4 to 5 percent acidity with a faint natural sweetness, where distilled white runs harsher. That softness is the whole point. It seasons without puckering.

The label trap is the word "seasoned." Seasoned rice vinegar has sugar and salt already blended in for sushi rice.

Pour it into a dressing that also calls for sugar and salt and you have seasoned the dish twice. That is how a dressing comes out cloying and over-salted from one wrong bottle.

Plain, unseasoned rice vinegar is the one to keep on hand. It does everything seasoned vinegar does once you add your own sugar and salt, and nothing locks you into the sushi ratio.

White vinegar is the clear, sharp, no-frills vinegar in the cupboard. Often called distilled or spirit vinegar, it is made by fermenting a neutral grain alcohol into acetic acid, then filtering it until it is colorless and tastes of nothing but clean sourness.

That blankness is its job. There are no grape or apple notes to get in the way, just acid, which makes it the most aggressive and the most useful all-rounder of the bunch.

For the wider vinegar story and the general rule about acid, see the main vinegar page. This one is about the colorless bottle that pulls double duty in the kitchen and around the house.

Sherry vinegar is a Spanish wine vinegar made from sherry, the fortified wine of Andalusia in the country's southwest.

By law it carries the Vinagre de Jerez designation. It is aged in oak barrels using the same solera system that ages the wine, which is why it tastes deeper and nuttier than ordinary red or white wine vinegar.

Expect a vinegar that is sharp but rounded, with toasted nuts and dried fruit behind the acid. A young bottle leans bright and tangy. One labeled Reserva has spent years in wood and turns mellow, almost like a dry oloroso sherry with teeth.

This is the vinegar to reach for when you want acid that adds flavor, not just sourness.

Tarragon vinegar is white wine vinegar steeped with fresh tarragon until the herb's flavor moves into the liquid. The result is mild and clean with a distinct anise note, that gentle licorice-and-grass character tarragon is known for.

It is one of the classic French flavored vinegars, the reason so many old recipes call for it by name rather than for plain vinegar plus the herb.

You can buy it, but it is easy to make. Bruise a few sprigs of fresh tarragon, drop them into a jar of warmed white wine vinegar, and let it sit two to four weeks in a cool, dark spot before straining.

Raspberry vinegar is a fruit-infused vinegar, usually white wine vinegar or cider vinegar steeped with fresh raspberries until the liquid turns rosy and fragrant. The result is sweet-tart and perfumed, with the acid softened by real berry flavor.

It became a darling of restaurant cooking in the 1980s and never quite left. A good bottle smells like raspberries first and vinegar second, which is exactly what you want.

You can make it at home: crush ripe raspberries into white wine vinegar, steep for a week or two, then strain. Some versions add a little sugar to round it out.

Malt vinegar is made from malted barley, the same grain base used to brew beer. Brewers turn the barley into a low-alcohol ale, then let bacteria sour it into vinegar, which gives it a deep brown color and a yeasty, almost bready tang.

It is a British staple above all else. A bottle of malt vinegar on the table, splashed over hot chips, is as much a part of fish and chips as the fish itself.

The flavor is sharp and bold, less refined than wine vinegar but full of character. Some bottles are darkened with caramel coloring; the malt itself also carries a faint sweetness under the acid.

Champagne vinegar is a white wine vinegar made from the grapes of the Champagne region, the same Chardonnay and Pinot that go into the sparkling wine. It is the lightest and most delicate of the common wine vinegars: pale gold and crisp, with a faint fruitiness.

Think of it as white wine vinegar's gentler cousin. It has a softer acidity and a cleaner finish, with a hint of the toasty, appley character of the wine behind it.

That delicacy is the whole point. Where a sharper vinegar shouts, champagne vinegar whispers, which makes it the one to reach for when you do not want the acid to take over.

Brown rice vinegar is rice vinegar made from unpolished brown rice instead of milled white rice. Leaving the bran and germ on the grain gives the finished vinegar a deeper amber color and a nuttier, fuller flavor than the clear white version.

It still sits at the gentle end of the shelf, around 4 to 5 percent acidity, so it seasons without the harsh bite of distilled white. For everything else about how rice vinegar behaves, see the main rice vinegar page; this is just the wholegrain branch of it.

Red vinegar is not one single product. When a recipe just says red vinegar, it almost always means one of two things, and which one matters for the dish.

Most of the time, especially in Western recipes, red vinegar is shorthand for red wine vinegar, the sharp, fruity vinegar made from red wine. In Chinese cooking, red vinegar usually means Chinese red rice vinegar, a milder, slightly sweet-tart vinegar fermented from rice and colored a translucent red.

So before you cook, read the rest of the ingredient list. The cuisine tells you which one was meant.

Chinese rice vinegar is rice vinegar brewed in the Chinese style, and it tends to run sharper and less sweet than the gentle Japanese kind.

The clear white version is the everyday one: bright, clean and acidic, with little of the rounded sweetness you get in a Japanese bottle meant for sushi. That extra edge is what you want where the vinegar has to push back against sugar and soy.

It is the acid in dishes like Jean's Sweet & Sour Pork, Sweet-And-Sour Chicken and Sweet-And-Sour Sauce, and it sharpens dressings for cold plates such as Chinese Veggie Salad with Soy Dressing and Asian Coleslaw.

Add it toward the end so the aroma does not cook off. If you only have Japanese or plain white rice vinegar, use it and hold back slightly on any sugar to recover the sharper bite. For the broader rundown, see the main rice vinegar page.

One caution: black Chinese rice vinegar, the aged Chinkiang style, is a different bottle entirely. It is dark, malty and closer to a mild balsamic, used for dipping rather than seasoning.

Chinese black vinegar is the dark, aged rice vinegar at the heart of southern and Sichuan cooking. It is malty and savory with a faint sweetness, closer to soy sauce in character than to a sharp Western vinegar.

The best-known type is Chinkiang vinegar, from the city of Zhenjiang, and for most cooks the two names mean the same bottle.

For full detail on flavor, uses, substitutes, and storage, see Chinkiang vinegar.

Chinkiang vinegar is the most famous Chinese black vinegar, named for the city of Zhenjiang (spelled Chinkiang on the old labels) in Jiangsu province. It is made mostly from glutinous rice, sometimes with wheat bran or sorghum, then fermented and aged until it turns inky black.

Its flavor is the reason cooks reach for it: a deep, malty, almost smoky tang with a faint sweetness and a savory, umami background. Think of it as the soy-sauce of vinegars, dark and rounded rather than sharp and bright.

It turns up all over Chinese cooking, especially in the south and in Sichuan dishes, and a bottle lasts a long time.

Plum vinegar, also called ume plum vinegar or umezu, is the salty pink brine left over from making umeboshi, the Japanese pickled plums.

It is not a true vinegar in the brewed sense. It is the liquid that the ume fruit gives up as it cures with salt and red shiso leaves.

That origin makes it unlike any other vinegar in the rack. It is intensely salty and sharply sour at once, with a fruity, floral edge from the plum and a rosy color from the shiso.

Because it carries both salt and acid, a little does the work of two seasonings, which is what makes it worth keeping around.

Japanese rice vinegar is the mild, pale rice vinegar used across Japanese cooking. It is brewed from fermented rice and sits low on acidity, around 4 to 5 percent, with a faint natural sweetness that keeps it from puckering the way distilled white does.

That softness is exactly why it seasons sushi rice. Warm rice folded with rice vinegar, sugar and salt becomes the seasoned base under nigiri and rolls, as in Basic Sushi Rice.

The same gentle acidity cuts the richness in dressings and dips without overpowering them, the way it does in Asian Guacamole. Watch the label for "seasoned" rice vinegar, which already has sugar and salt mixed in. Keep the plain bottle so you control the sushi ratio yourself.

Plain white rice vinegar is the same thing under a different name and swaps in directly. For the full picture on choosing, using and storing it, see the main rice vinegar page.

Chardonnay vinegar (sometimes typed "chardonnary") is a white wine vinegar made specifically from Chardonnay wine. It is a single-grape version of the broader white wine vinegar category, so it is crisp and clean with a touch more fruit and roundness than a generic bottle.

Because the grape ferments to a fairly soft, buttery wine, the vinegar tends to be a little less harsh than sharp white wine vinegars. That makes it a natural fit for delicate dishes.

It stars in a kiwi-laced pan sauce for Sauteed Halibut with Kiwi Chardonnay Sauce, and it suits gentle vinaigrettes like the one over Roasted New Potato Salad with Basil Vinaigrette, where a brasher vinegar would dominate. It also turns up in rich classics such as Escargots En Cercueils.

Any plain white wine vinegar substitutes for it directly; you lose a little of the soft fruit but the acidity is the same. Champagne vinegar is an even closer match if you have it.

Store it like any vinegar: sealed in a cool, dark cupboard, where it keeps for years. For the fuller story on choosing and using it, see the main white wine vinegar page.

Herb vinegar is any vinegar that has been steeped with fresh herbs until it takes on their flavor. The base is usually a mild wine vinegar or cider vinegar.

The herb can be tarragon, dill, basil, thyme, rosemary, chives or a mix. Tarragon vinegar is the classic, but the idea is the same whatever goes in the jar.

The point is a dressing that tastes of the herb without your having to chop anything. A splash carries thyme or tarragon straight into a vinaigrette.

That is why it lifts a Wild Green Salad, a warm Robert's Red Potato & Green Bean Salad, or a sharp dressing like Rose's Tomato/Onion Dressing.

To make it, pack clean, dry herbs into a clean jar, cover them completely with warmed white wine vinegar, and steep one to two weeks in a cool, dark spot before straining. Warming the vinegar speeds the infusion; boiling it just blows off the aroma you are trying to capture.

The one real caution is fresh aromatics with low acidity, like raw garlic or chiles. They can harbor botulism spores in a low-acid oil, but a true vinegar infusion stays safely acidic. Keep everything submerged and use clean jars.

No herb vinegar on hand? Reach for plain wine vinegar and add the fresh or dried herb directly.

A strained, sealed bottle keeps for several months in a cool cupboard; toss it if it clouds heavily or smells off.

Basil vinegar is white wine vinegar that has been steeped with fresh basil until it takes on the herb's sweet, peppery aroma. The vinegar stays sharp and clean, but it carries a green, anise-edged note that plain wine vinegar does not.

It is a salad and dressing vinegar above all. The basil pairs naturally with tomatoes, summer fruit and soft leaves, which is why it suits a Spinach & Fresh Fruit Salad or a sharp vinaigrette like Don's Piquant Salad Dressing.

Making your own is easy. Bruise a handful of clean, dry basil leaves, submerge them in warmed (not boiling) white wine vinegar, and leave the jar in a cool, dark spot for one to two weeks before straining.

Keep the leaves fully covered by the vinegar so nothing sits exposed above the surface to spoil.

No basil vinegar on hand? Use plain white wine vinegar and tear a little fresh basil straight into the dish. Stored sealed and strained, a finished bottle keeps for months in a cool cupboard.

Blackberry vinegar is vinegar that has been steeped with ripe blackberries until it turns deep purple and tastes of the fruit. It is tart and lightly sweet at once, with a jammy, dark-berry depth that plain vinegar cannot give you.

The classic use is in pan sauces for poultry and game. The fruity acid cuts the richness of the meat and deglazes the browned bits into a quick sauce, which is exactly the move in Chicken Blackberry Vinegar and Blackberry Chicken.

A spoonful also lifts a vinaigrette for bitter greens, or gets stretched with sparkling water into an old-fashioned shrub to drink.

To make it, crush ripe blackberries, cover them with white wine vinegar or cider vinegar, and steep a few days to a week before straining and lightly sweetening to taste. Press the fruit to pull out color and flavor, then bottle the strained liquid.

No bottle on hand? Stir a little blackberry jam or a few crushed berries into plain wine vinegar. Strained and sealed, it keeps for months in a cool, dark cupboard. Raspberry vinegar works the same way if you want a brighter, sharper berry note.

Blueberry vinegar is vinegar infused with blueberries until it takes on the fruit's color and flavor. It runs milder and rounder than a sharp berry vinegar like raspberry, with a soft, slightly floral sweetness behind the tartness.

Its gentleness makes it a finishing splash rather than a dominant acid. It rounds out fruit-forward condiments such as Very Berry Salsa and Blueberry Ketchup, and a small pour lifts a vinaigrette for spinach or goat-cheese salads without shouting over them.

A spoonful over melon or grilled pork also works.

To make a batch, lightly crush ripe blueberries, cover them with white wine vinegar or cider vinegar, and steep about a week before straining; sweeten lightly to taste if you like. Pressing the soft berries hard muddies the vinegar, so press gently and let it drip.

No blueberry vinegar in the cupboard? Stir a little blueberry preserve into plain wine vinegar, or use raspberry vinegar for a sharper, more assertive berry note. A strained, sealed bottle keeps for months in a cool, dark spot.

Red rice vinegar is a Chinese rice vinegar tinted reddish by red yeast rice, with a sharp, slightly sweet and faintly salty flavor. It is milder and thinner than the dark, malty black Chinkiang vinegar, and brighter in color than plain white rice vinegar.

Its main job is at the table, not the stove. Red rice vinegar is the classic dipping vinegar for dumplings and seafood, often with a few slivers of fresh ginger dropped in, the way it works alongside Potstickers, Part 1 of 2.

It also goes into hot pot dipping sauces, as in New Year's Mongolian Hot Pot With Chicken & Shrimp.

If you do not have it, mix plain rice vinegar with a small splash of black vinegar to approximate the color and the rounder edge, or just use plain rice vinegar on its own. For everything else about rice vinegars, see the main rice vinegar page.