About Vinegar

History

The word vinegar comes from the French vin aigre meaning wine (vin) that is sour (aigre). There are no specific records as to when vinegar was first discovered, but it’s widely recounted to have been when someone left wine open to the air and it soured, or fermented. Vinegar has been made and used for thousands of years - traces of it have been found in Egyptian urns from around 3000 B.C.E.

How it's made

Vinegar is made from the oxidation of ethanol in wine, cider, beer, fermented fruit juice, or nearly any other liquid containing alcohol. Vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods are generally used with traditional vinegars and fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of weeks or months. The longer fermentation period allows for the accumulation of a nontoxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria and soluble cellulose, known as the mother of vinegar. Fast methods add mother of vinegar (i.e. bacterial culture) to the source liquid and then add air using a venturi pump system or a turbine to promote oxygenation to give the fastest fermentation. In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced in a period ranging from 20 hours to three days.

Types of Vinegar

There are many types of vinegar available at your local market, from the more commonly known wine vinegars made from Red and White Wine and Balsamics to the more specialty types like Malt, Palm, and Cane Vinegar.