Cooks, how often do you use vinegar?

[LevelSea]

I've currently got white, apple cider, red wine, balsamic, champagne, sherry, and rice vinegar in my pantry.

 

[Fritzo]

I use apple cider vinegar and balsamic quite a bit for sauce making and deglazing.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I keep balsamic, apple cider, distilled white, red wine, and rice vinegar on hand and use them frequently. I use two types of balsamic - the cheap Kirkland stuff for marinades and some higher-end stuff for caprese salad and desserts. The others I use for vinaigrettes and to add to some sauces and stews at the end (you'd be surprised what a little bit of vinegar can do for a beef stew or stroganoff). There is also champagne vinegar in my cabinet that is used for making béarnaise and a bottle of sherry vinegar that is used rarely.

 

[Ryan]

I've been giving quick pickling a try lately, especially since my cukes have been pretty productive this year.

 

[Fritzo]

I keep balsamic, apple cider, distilled white, red wine, and rice vinegar on hand and use them frequently. I use two types of balsamic - the cheap Kirkland stuff for marinades and some higher-end stuff for caprese salad and desserts. The others I use for vinaigrettes and to add to some sauces and stews at the end (you'd be surprised what a little bit of vinegar can do for a beef stew or stroganoff). There is also champagne vinegar in my cabinet that is used for making béarnaise and a bottle of sherry vinegar that is used rarely.

Just an FYI- even though the Kirkland stuff is inexpensive, it's actually really high quality.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Just an FYI- even though the Kirkland stuff is inexpensive, it's actually really high quality.

Yup. Their olive oil is quite good too.

 

[nageov3t]

pretty often, but I also eat a lot of salads and make my own dressing.

oil/vinegar is also my go-to sandwich condiment.

 

[RagingBITCH]

I use it for salads (balsamic) and BBQ/smoking frequently. Otherwise, very rarely.

 

[yuchai]

It depends on what you're trying to do and how much you're willing to carry. If you're using the vinegar mainly for general acidity in the dish, you can pretty much substitute with fresh lemon for example.

But other vinegars have distinct tastes that cannot be replicated with anything else. Think Balasamic, Zhenjiang vinegar, etc If you often make dishes that make use of these specialized vinegars, then there are no good substitutes.

So to summarize, I wouldn't go with something generic like white vinegar (unless you have non cooking uses for it), and then decide on whether to bring a more specialized vinegar.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Every cook should have various vinegars, salts, and sugars on hand. You are mobile so small quantities are fine, particularly since you are probably cooking for one most the time.

 

[DigDog]

PSA

vinegar is now a euphemism for guns.

 

[harvey_markAZ]

i use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning and unclog a sink

 

[pyonir]

You are going to get stopped a lot carrying vinegar. Just ask Dave.

:awe: LMFAO. This is the response I expected when opening this thread.

I have nothing more to add. Carry on everyone. :thumbsup:

 

[ElFenix]

Is there some place other than restaurant depot that I can find big bottles of red wine vinegar? Half gallon at least?

 

[MongGrel]

I need to get my step sisters Bread and Butter pickle recipe, she used to work for Red Gold in the testing area for even all their peppers, etc.

The last jar she gave me I loved, but we are far apart. I need to learn how she makes those myself.

I still had never been really sure on what the OP meant, but I guess traveling on the road and what to carry solo.

 

[Mike64]

Vinegar is handy to have around, its cheap, and I don't think it ever goes bad.

^ This

Unsweetened, unflavored vinegar won't ever go "bad", though ones with distinctive flavors will fade over time. (But we're talking really long time periods here. Years. Not months.) Mass-market "balsamic vinegar" may gunk-up/settle to the bottom if unused for months at a time, but the worst offenders are also cheap, so easily replaceable. I can't really imagine not having at least distilled white and white wine vinegar around, plus, preferably, rice vinegar, though the wine vinegar can be slightly diluted with water to stand in for the latter, and filtered cider vinegar isn't a terrible substitute for wine vinegar. Though again, if shelf life rather than storage space is the issue, I see no particular reason to stint on any of them since they're relatively inexpensive and have such a long shelf life.

Oil, especially olive oil, on the other hand, has a comparatively short shelf life at room temperature, so I would buy that in small bottles, and keep it in the fridge, or at least stick it in the fridge before I left to go traveling. (Or keep the larger bottle in the fridge, and a small one on the counter.) Some veg oils (safflower, grapeseed, etc) have a somewhat longer-than-average warm-room-temp shelf life, but none of them lasts forever. (I've found that many people seem not to notice that their oil went rancid months beforehand and keep it using long past the point where I'd feed it to a starving rat... I think that's gross, and it's not healthy, though it's also not acutely toxic.)

As for the rest of the OP's list, I'd add at least a few things:

Salt
Pepper (specifically, whole peppercorns)
Olive Oil
Flour (roux)
Cornstarch
Garlic
Onions
Ginger
Soy Sauce?
Hot sauce (e.g., Tabasco)
Worcestershire sauce
"Wine for cooking" (but the not the stuff sold in supermarkets labeled "cooking wine")
Stock Powders
Canned broth
Canned beans
Spices/herbs

[...]
Maybecanned tomatoes (and tomato paste).
In the past I never carried flour but I've recently discovered roux and now
Is vinegar necessary? Yes A bag of sugar? Yes
Dry pasta

It depends to a large extent where the OP lives and what access there is to groceries. I can, for example, easily buy quite a wider selection of things than are on the OP's shortlist 24/7 within a few blocks of my apartment, at a 24 hour "drugstore" like Rite Aid or a small corner convenience store. I might overpay for some of them at 3am, but if I want sugar or flour at 3am, I'm not going to to worry about paying an extra dollar or 2 for it...

I couldn't cook happily on a regular basis without soy sauce (and like to have SE Asian fish sauce on hand too), but its "necessity" depends on what the OP cooks. It keeps well quite a while at room temperature, and a very long time in the fridge.

I also consider tomatoes a food group in their own right, so at least a small stock of my preferred brands (not available in my immediate neighborhood) would be a must. (As it is, I've managed to amass enough to keep half the population of Italy south of Naples in red sauce through a particularly protracted Nuclear Winter.^_^) I'd also keep canned broth on hand. For very small amounts, the powders or pastes are OK, but once you're up to soup-level quantities, they mostly just taste incredibly salty and the "flavor" seems incredibly fake to me... I'd add a couple of cans of a few sorts of canned beans (in my case, chickpeas, pink, and black) as well.

I could probably live without flour for most everyday cooking (I tend to use cornstarch for quick, small-scale thickening), but on the other hand, white (vs whole wheat) flour has a very long shelf life if kept in an airtight container away from sun/direct light and it's cheap, so I see no downside to keeping a couple of pounds lying around. Similarly, cornstarch basically never goes bad, so I would add a small container of that to the list. And even if the OP never bakes anything, I can't imagine not having at least a pound of sugar on hand for cooking purposes, and more than that, unless the OP uses artificial sweeteners in beverages. And since white sugar will basically never go even stale much less "bad", there's no downside to keeping it around in whatever quantity storage space allows...

I don't know if the OP considers it a different category of pantry staples he hasn't mentioned, but given the way I cook/eat, the absence of dry pasta from the list shocks me. For quick meals or if push comes to shove, it can be the bulk of a "meal" all by itself, at least with a sauce a little more nutritious/flavorful than basic tomato sauce (and lots of pasta sauces freeze very well.) I normally keep quite a bit/variety around, but I'd want at least one sort of long (spaghetti/linguine/fettucine) and one of short, cut (ziti/penne/rigatoni) pasta available at all times, and preferably some egg noodles, too. It doesn't have a literally indefinite shelf, but it lasts a very long time even in the original cardboard carton/thin cellophane bag (and even longer if you put it in an airtight, moth-proof canister or larger freezer bags.) For that matter, I can't imagine not having rice around, either, and again, basic white, long-grain rices keeps a long time on the shelf. (Medium/short-grain Asian rices have a shorter shelf life, and brown rice, shorter still.)

I'd also add at least one sort of basic hot sauce (eg, Tabasco), a small bottle of Worcestireshire sauce, and some sort of "wine" for cooking purposes. I know some people who purport to be able to distinguish good food from bad are satisfied with ordinary table wine left sitting in the fridge for weeks/months/years on end, but frankly, I find that incomprehensible. On the other hand, fortified wines with at least 17% ABV like (Julia Child's old favorite-for-the-purpose) dry white vermouth (readily available in half-bottles, with screw tops), or a somewhat heavier sherry (fino ≠ a great choice), will keep well for a fairly long time (6 months) at room temperature and again, a very long time in the fridge after being opened.

I'd also add a fairly long list of spices/dried herbs, but that's a very personal thing. My bare minimum would include bay leaves, thyme, oregano and/or marjoram, generic curry powder, ground cumin, ground cinnamon, (sweet) paprika, and cayenne pepper. Ground black pepper doesn't have much of a shelf-life at all (and it's not something I'd ever buy in the first place), but whole peppercorns hold up well a very long time even by exacting standards and even the cheapest pepper mills are fine for occasional use.

As for seasoning vegetables, onions are a poor candidate for long-term indoor storage (excluding those modern rarities - "cold cellars" and pantries.) I would not plan to keep any particular onion(s) around longer than a couple of weeks. Garlic keeps a bit longer (and doesn't stink to high heaven when it rots), but at typical US room temperature, it too has a relatively limited lifespan (a few weeks, maybe) before it (usually) dries out to a husk or (occasionally) rots. Ginger on the other hand lasts a long time in the fridge if only loosely wrapped, and can be frozen, and grated while still frozen. Even fresh herbs that have a short fridge-life (parsley, dill, basil, coriander) but that are really nice to have on hand can be chopped fine/processed/blended and frozen in small cubes/amounts (and are sometimes commercially available in that form.)

 

[Mike64]

Dupe (dunno how that happened)

 

[Carson Dyle]

Is there some place other than restaurant depot that I can find big bottles of red wine vinegar? Half gallon at least?

Looks like gallon jugs from Heinz, Regina and others are readily available.

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/four-monks-red-wine-vinegar-1-gal/161121.ip

http://mybrands.com/Brands/Regina/Regina-Vinegar-Red-Wine-1-gal

Or:

http://www.food.com/recipe/red-wine-vinegar-copycat-337211

 

[Carson Dyle]

I still had never been really sure on what the OP meant, but I guess traveling on the road and what to carry solo.

No, that hasn't been clear from the start. I can see carrying around some favorite spices and other fairly expensive and compact ingredients. Not cans of tomatoes.

I remember a backpacking buddy years ago who was a great cook (especially for kid of 20) who used to carry a tiny little stash of spices and a few fresh herbs on every trip. He even carried slivered almonds. Never ceased to amaze me what he came up with from a bunch of otherwise bland, dried ingredients.

 

[pete6032]

I'm trying to determine what must-have items I should purchase to always have on hand. I'm in a perpetual state of travel so I have to plan carefully.

So far, it's:

Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Flour (roux)
Garlic
Onions
Ginger
Soy Sauce?
Stock Powders

That's about all I've got so far. Maybe canned tomatoes.

In the past I never carried flour but I've recently discovered roux and now I consider it pretty important as a way to kick dishes up a notch, or at least not turn everything I make into a sad watery mess.

Is vinegar necessary? A bag of sugar?

Do you mean you travel a lot so at home you want to know what staples to have in your kitchen? Vinegar has a very very long shelf life, so I don't see why you wouldn't have it on hand.

For me I also like to have some canned vegetables - tomatoes as you mentioned, artichoke hearts, black/garbanzo beans.

Dry spices - curry powder, chili powder, cumin, oregano, basil, paprika.

 

[bradly1101]

I use two different vinegars (apple cider and Muscat Orange champagne) combined with natural orange soda and plain OJ in a reduction sauce and as a glaze over Salmon that always gets raves.

 

[ElFenix]

Looks like gallon jugs from Heinz, Regina and others are readily available.

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/four-monks-red-wine-vinegar-1-gal/161121.ip

http://mybrands.com/Brands/Regina/Regina-Vinegar-Red-Wine-1-gal

Or:

http://www.food.com/recipe/red-wine-vinegar-copycat-337211

Weird, my Sams never seems to carry it

 

[Mike64]

Looks like gallon jugs from Heinz, Regina and others are readily available.http://www.food.com/recipe/red-wine-vinegar-copycat-337211

I've seen those even in some big, suburban (regular) supermarkets...

 

[Mike64]

No, that hasn't been clear from the start. I can see carrying around...

I guess it could in fact be either, but I was assuming he meant that he travels a lot, so doesn't like to stock up too heavily at home on things that don't keep well over the long haul.

ETA:
But wait, there's more! I missed the OP's second post, mentioning

I don't want to buy rice vinegar and only use it once and have to lug it around everywhere I go.

Oh. That's different. Scratch pretty much everything I wrote. Without more input from the OP as to what sort of travel is involved, whether it's car-based (I certainly hope so, for his sake), how long he's at wherever he goes at a time, and what sort of cooking facilities he has while there, I really can't think of anything, except to note that I can't imagine lugging canned tomatoes anywhere, and in the abstract, would have to be in places for fairly long periods of time at a time, with decent cooking facilities, to bother with much of anything except maybe condiments I wasn't confident of finding wherever it was I were going... And if I were traveling constantly by car and carrying food, I'd just buy what I needed locally, in small quantities [ETA: and steal lots and lots of ketchup/mustard/mayo and sugar packets from restaurants and places like 7-11!], as I needed it, use it whenever possible (many "different versions" of the sorts of things he mentioned can be subbed for each other) then move on to the next thing I need-but-don't-have. (In his example, any light-colored, unsweetened vinegar can sub for another in a pinch, by using more or less, or diluting with water, if necessary.)

I will say that if for some reason I were forced to use only one kind of vinegar for the rest of my life and cost weren't a huge factor, it would be a decent white wine vinegar...

 

[peter6667]

Don't like the taste. But you can always use it to clean stuff