all hail vinegar
Today, the vinegar aisle sparkles with dozens of gourmet glass bottles, full of tangy liquids in virtually all colours of the rainbow. There are vinegars of red wine, white wine and rice wine. Balsamic vinegar. Malt vinegar. Apple cider vinegar. Sherry vinegar. Beer, coconut, cane, raisin and even kiwifruit vinegar.
What to do with such an array of choices?! Plenty, as it turns out, so let’s dive straight in for a sense of the sour stuff.
As with so many good things, alcohol is the starting point for all kinds of vinegar. The etymology of the word itself traces back to the Latin (and later Old English and French) for ‘sour wine’ (). Whatever the type of booze you beginis acetic acid, formed by microorganisms when oxygen comes into contact with ethanol. (If you have ever had to tip a half-drunk bottle of wine down the sink days later with a pong that makes your eyes water, congratulations! You’re a dab hand at kicking off this chemical process.)
