White vinegar: what it is, what it is used for and what can be substituted ::

Assortment range

By origin, all vinegar is divided into two types: natural and synthetic. Both can be used in the food industry. Synthetic is found not only in its pure form, but also with various flavors. In this role, herbal extracts are used, which are also often used as condiments. Natural alcoholic vinegar, which is obtained from ethyl alcohol, can also be flavored.

Natural vinegar can be apple cider, wine, balsamic, and malt.

Expiry dates

The shelf life of apple cider vinegar depends on how it is produced. Homemade product must be used within 6 months. It was during this period that its positive properties and the necessary strength were preserved.

The product from the store can be used for 12 months. Usually, an increase in the shelf life of apple cider vinegar is achieved by adding preservatives to its composition. Therefore, before buying, you should carefully study the labeling on the packaging. Acetic anhydride has the longest shelf life - 2 years from the date of production.

A clear sign that the vinegar has deteriorated is the appearance of a cloudy sediment. If the product was prepared by yourself, you can simply strain it through cheesecloth and use it further. Throw away the grocery store immediately.

Many people use vinegar for cosmetic purposes, the expiration date of which has already passed. They explain this by the fact that manufacturers indicate on the packaging of the date with a small margin.

Accordingly, the product retains its properties for some time, therefore it is suitable for the preparation of medical hair masks or nail baths. Eating expired vinegar is still not worth it, since the consequences of poisoning can be serious.

As you already understood, apple cider vinegar is not overly whimsical. Any housewife can organize its proper storage at home. Follow the rules and get from the use of this natural product all the benefits that nature has laid in it.

Table vinegar and white vinegar. What is the difference?

Many housewives believe that table vinegar, which can be found in any kitchen, is white vinegar. That is, these are synonymous names for the same substance. In fact, this point of view is erroneous.

What makes white vinegar different from table vinegar is that table vinegar is a diluted solution of vinegar essence that you can buy at the store. Then, depending on the required concentration, it is diluted with less or more water. White, on the other hand, is a product of beer wort fermentation.

How vinegar is made

To obtain vinegar, natural raw materials are needed. In this capacity, a variety of fruit juices, grape juice and remnants of wine material can act. And also rectified ethyl alcohol and products of its processing. Alcohol is fermented by acetic acid bacteria. The complete oxidation process is not allowed, otherwise complete decomposition into water and carbon dioxide will occur.

After the oxidation process is completed, it is required to clean, pasteurize and pour the finished product. In some cases, the substance must be diluted.

Best Apple Cider Vinegar Recipes

Below are some of the best homemade vinegar recipes made from apples.

Homemade sugar-based apple otst recipe

For this usual recipe, apple cider vinegar will be ready within a month. Apart from apples, only sugar is useful. There are no other components. The amount of sugar is indicated for sweet apple varieties. If you have only sour apples, then the amount of sugar should be doubled.

Required Ingredients:

sweet apples (3 kg);
granulated sugar (150 g);
water.

Manufacturing method:

Wash the apples thoroughly and chop extremely finely. Additionally, you can crush the pulp with a crush.
Place the apple base in a saucepan (preferably enameled).
Cover everything with sugar.
Heat the water so that it is hot, but not boiling (the ideal temperature is 70 degrees).
The amount of liquid should be such that the apples are poured about 5 cm.
Place the pot in a warm place, but make sure that the wort does not come into contact with direct sunlight.
Mix the apple mass twice a day to prevent the top layer from drying out.
After two weeks, strain the contents of the pan with a gauze filter (fold a piece of gauze in three).
Pour the fragrant liquid into huge glass jars.
Please note that to ensure the normal fermentation process, it is necessary to leave more than 5, or even 7 cm from the surface of the water to the top of the container. The bottom line is that during fermentation the water level will gradually become higher.
The future oset should be stored in banks for 14 days.

Jarvis Apple Cider Vinegar Making

American doctor Jarvis has invented a recipe that involves the introduction of additional ingredients in the manufacture of apple otst at home. It will take a long time to cook vinegar, however, its composition will be extremely useful.

Required Ingredients:

Apples (2 kg);
Water (2 L);
Honey (200 g at the beginning and about 100 grams more for the second stage of fermentation);
Live yeast (200 g);
Rye bread (40 g).

Manufacturing method:

Wash the apples, then grate on the large side of the grater, without removing the seeds, skin and partitions. It is also possible to simply pass the product through a meat grinder.
Place the resulting gruel in glass jars and pour the required amount of water. You can replace glass jars with enamel dishes.
Add yeast, crackers and honey - this will speed up fermentation.
The dishes should be covered with a woven napkin and placed in a warm, dark place. It is better that the air temperature is about 30 degrees.
The preparatory fermentation time is 10 days. Stir the wort three times a day with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Strain the oset with a gauze filter, then weigh.
For each liter of the base, put 50 g of sugar or honey, mix, cover with gauze and put away again in a dark and warm place.
Fermentation will take a long time, more than 50 days. Its end will be signaled by the transparency of the finished product.

Apple juice made from juice

Another version of homemade apple cider vinegar involves the use of not apple pulp, but its juice.The amount of fruit indicated is approximate, it can be changed depending on the appropriate amount of future vinegar.

Required Ingredients for cooking:

Manufacturing method:

Cut the sweet ripe apples into large pieces and place in the open air for the oxidation process to take effect.
When the pieces have darkened, they must be passed through a juicer to obtain juice. It is also permissible to simply grate the fruit and squeeze through folded cheesecloth.
The resulting juice should be poured into a glass bottle, after which a rubber medical glove is put on the neck.
Store the bottle in a dark place at a temperature of 30 degrees.
The gas will gradually inflate the glove. After it swells to a large size, it must be removed. How long you have to expect is unknown. The waiting time can range from 7 days to one and a half months.
Pour the vinegar uterus together with the wort into a wide bowl, preferably wooden or earthenware. If the area of contact with air is large, then fermentation will occur faster. There should be approximately 10 cm between the surface of the water and the dishes, and the minimum is 7.
Cover the surface of the dishes with a cloth or gauze.
Wait for the end of fermentation (homemade apple oset will be transparent, and the bubbling will end completely). The approximate period is from one and a half months.
Filter, bottle it and put it in a cold place in the house, you can put it in the refrigerator.

Plain homemade apple vinegar with honey

A common vinegar recipe, reminiscent of the famous Jarvis apple cider, but without the use of dark bread.

To make apple cider vinegar according to this recipe, you need such ingredients:

Sweet variety of apples (1 kg);
Chilled boiled water (1 L);
Honey (200 g);
Sugar (100 g);
Dry yeast (20 g).

Manufacturing method:

Fruits should be grated or use a meat grinder.
Put apple puree, yeast and honey in a bowl, which is intended for fermentation, and then pour everything with the required amount of water.
Mix everything perfectly and place in a warm place for fermentation for about 10 days. Closing the lid is prohibited, you can use gauze. Stir daily throughout the entire time.
Strain, squeeze the apples with cheesecloth, then combine both liquids.
Pour the liquid into a jar with a wide neck, add sugar and again set for fermentation for two months.
As soon as the ocet turns light, it is ready to eat.

Homemade Apple Ocet with Sugar

At home, apple ocet is prepared quite simply. The main thing is to provide a warm temperature and prepare the necessary conditions for successful fermentation.

Required Ingredients for cooking:

Ripe apples (2 kg);
Sugar (200 g);
Chilled boiled water (1.5 l).

Manufacturing method:

Puree the apples along with the skin and core.
Place in a saucepan or in a jar, cover with half the sugar and add water.
Stir, cover with a napkin on top, then leave for 3 weeks for fermentation to occur. Stir several times daily.
Strain, add the second half of the sugar, mix everything well and distribute to the jars.
Leave for the fermentation process for about 2 months.
When the liquid becomes transparent, the finished oset should be filtered. The vinegar is now ready to use.

White vinegar

If you look at what white vinegar looks like, it can be confused with regular table vinegar. Malt vinegar has a yellowish tint, but after being refined it becomes colorless. Since it has a rather strong odor and sour taste, it is not used for salad dressing or ready-made consumption. The most common areas of its use are marinade making and preservation.

But beer wort is not the only material from which this type of vinegar is made. Then white vinegar - what is it when it is obtained from other raw materials? Wine vinegar is the most popular among culinary specialists. Its white variety is the result of fermentation of the by-products of wine production.

The base is white wine. Due to its softer and more pleasant taste, it is often used in the preparation of a wide variety of fish and meat dishes. It is used for dressing vegetable salads, making various sauces.

What vinegar to use for canning. Choosing vinegar for canning

Vinegar is an indispensable product for canning vegetables. It is used in the preparation of marinades for long-term storage of homemade preparations; it is also used in the preparation of fresh salads and various sauces.

Vinegar can be synthetic or natural. Natural contains a lot of all kinds of trace elements and vitamins. Synthetic vinegar is a chemical product. As a rule, it is used for economic purposes.

How to distinguish synthetic vinegar from real vinegar?

When choosing vinegar for canning vegetables, we must look at the label. The unnaturalness of the product is indicated by such inscriptions as "essence" and "table vinegar".

If the vinegar is real, its label contains the following inscriptions: "natural", "biochemical" or "alcohol".

To choose the right vinegar, pay attention to the composition of the product. Its main element should be berry or fruit juice. If the product is multi-ingredient, there may be more than one ingredient in it.

The sediment indicates the naturalness of the vinegar. As for industrial products, they do not have sediment, as they are pasteurized.

The shelf life of vinegar is of great importance. A synthetic product will not deteriorate even after 15 years, while a natural product can be stored for a maximum of 4 years under certain conditions.

A natural product can contain a maximum of 9% acetic acid.

How to dilute 70% vinegar to 9%

To make 9% vinegar, take 70% vinegar and dilute it with water. The approximate ratio should be as follows: for one part of vinegar, we add seven parts of water. For example, you have 2 tablespoons of vinegar. To dissolve it up to 9%, it is necessary to add 14 tablespoons of water to it.

By the way, the most convenient guideline when mixing vinegar with water is a regular faceted glass. According to the observations of many chefs, it turned out that a glass holds 17 tablespoons of water. Therefore, to get the essence of 9% from 70 percent vinegar, simply add two tablespoons of 70 percent vinegar to the glass.

Observance of proportions to obtain a concentrated product

If you need to get table vinegar of other concentrations, then the essence should be diluted as follows:

to obtain 9% table vinegar - 7 parts of ordinary drinking water;
to obtain 8% table vinegar - 8 parts of ordinary drinking water;
to obtain 7% table vinegar - 9 parts of ordinary drinking water;
to obtain 6% table vinegar - 11 parts of ordinary drinking water.

Precautions

Acetic acid is a "Russian poison", as it is banned for sale in the EU countries. According to the amendments to regulations approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, retail sales of acetic acid, the concentration of which exceeds 10%, should have been banned as early as January 1, 2010. Only businesses can use vinegar essence.

We still see 70% acetic acid on grocery store shelves. This is such a terrible poison we store at home, and often in places accessible to children, next to food. But how much more useful it is to use natural vinegar for home canning and just for food, which we talked about above.

What is balsamic vinegar

It takes a long time to get balsamic vinegar, a large amount of a certain grape variety and adherence to the entire manufacturing technology, which is more difficult than it might seem. But due to its taste characteristics, it is considered the most valuable type of vinegar.

It is produced in one region of Italy - in Modena. Juice is squeezed out of white grapes, which is then caramelized. Since sugar darkens when heated, the substance acquires a dark color and a special taste. Unlike all other vinegars, balsamic vinegars are aged in wooden barrels for at least 12 years.

Since the complexity of manufacturing seriously affects the price, on store shelves you can most often see simpler versions of vinegar, for the manufacture of which the technology is not so strictly adhered to. At the same time, this is a completely high-quality product that can be used for dressing salads, adding to sauces, sprinkling meat and desserts.

How to store at home: conditions, place, container

The "life time" of the preservative depends on the container in which the manufacturer poured it and the storage conditions.

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The solution is best preserved in glass containers. It is undesirable to use plastic and metal bottles.
An equally important point is the tightness of the lid. The bottle should be closed as tightly as possible so that the liquid does not erode.
The optimum temperature range for storage is from -3 to 35 ° C.
Store the preservative in the kitchen in a cabinet located as far from the stove as possible.
No rays of sunlight should penetrate the shelf. A closed pantry with a constant temperature regime is well suited.

If these conditions are met, the product will not lose the qualities declared by the manufacturer during the entire shelf life.

Rice vinegar is rare in our latitudes, but is very popular in China and Japan. It has a mild taste, pleasant aroma and slight sweetness.

In a closed container

Sealed vinegar should be stored in a well-ventilated area with a relative humidity of no more than 80%. The permissible temperature range is from -3 to 35 ° C (according to GOST 32097-2013 "Vinegars from food raw materials. General specifications").

To save money, a shelf of a closed kitchen cabinet far from heating appliances is suitable. Identical storage requirements apply to the dining room variety (GOST R 56968-2016 "Table vinegar. Technical requirements").

Note to the hostess
When the temperature drops to 1-3 degrees below zero, the preservative freezes. During subsequent defrosting, the original qualities do not change.

In an open container

An open bottle should be stored in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

Balsamic vinegar industrial production, after depressurization of the container, it quickly loses its taste. It is advisable to keep the opened container in a cool place, protected from the sun. The product must be consumed within 1 year from the date of opening. The term may be reduced: it depends on the additives present in the solution. As a rule, they are indicated on the label.
After opening the bottle with apple preservative you need to put it in a place protected from the sun (a shelf in a kitchen cabinet, a closed pantry). The storage temperature should not exceed 35 ° C. But the refrigerator should not be used as storage.
Open wine vinegar cannot be kept in the refrigerator. Better - on a dark, cool shelf in a cabinet located far from the stove and other heating elements.To prevent weathering of wine vapors, the cork should close the neck as tightly as possible.

Note to the hostess
If open wine vinegar is stored for a long time in a room with a temperature above 25 ° C, the product may ferment and become unusable.

Homemade

Homemade apple cider vinegar should be stored in a cool, dark place (like your home cellar) in a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. The optimum temperature range is from 6 to 15 ° C.

The shelf life of apple cider vinegar (homemade version) is no more than 6 months.

You can also make wine vinegar at home. It is stored in a cool place, without the penetration of sunlight. Options - pantry, kitchen cabinet shelf, countertop. The main thing is that the storage temperature does not exceed 25 ° C.

Sediment is allowed in homemade vinegar. Cloudiness of the solution indicates its unsuitability.

Tip of the day
If a brown flake-shaped precipitate has formed at the bottom of the container, then in order to use the product further, it must be "put in order". Filtering won't help here. You need to carefully drain the top layer of the liquid, leaving a residue in the bottle.

Balsamic Vinegar Variations

Over the years, several new interpretations of the classic balsamic vinegar have emerged, through a variety of flavors. To do this, vinegar is infused with lemon, raspberry or cherry.

There is also white balsamic vinegar, which is produced using a different technology.

To prevent the color from becoming dark, the grapes do not caramelize, and the vinegar itself is aged in steel barrels, not wood. The result is a product with a very beautiful rich golden hue. It is used when the light color of the vinegar will look much more advantageous in the dish than the dark one.

What to do with delay

A typical sign of preservative deterioration is turbidity and discoloration, which occurs due to the action of microflora. Sediments are only allowed in homemade food.

Can expired vinegar be used for any purpose? It is not suitable for eating, preserving, and even for cosmetic procedures. But if the expiration date has ended recently, then the solution can be used in gardening to get rid of ants.

This article will discuss the preparation of natural homemade apple vinegar, which is made from whole, finely crushed apples. You can get ready-made apple cider vinegar in stores, but usually it is made from the skin and core of the apple. Therefore, it is better to cook vinegar yourself. Its recipe is quite simple.

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In the process of making vinegar, apple juice should be diluted almost in half, as a result of which the amount of potassium in it will decrease. Because of this best to add honey to vinegar, and not sugar, because it can restore the lack of potassium. If apples are sweet varieties, then for 800 g of apples you need to add 50 g of sugar or honey. As for sour varieties, 100 g of honey or sugar is added to the same weight. Many people think that adding honey is much healthier. In the human body, potassium binds to iron, silicon, and other elements. It is thanks to the vinegar that this bond is obtained. If you just eat an apple, then such chemical processes will not occur.