13 Essential Vinegars to Keep in Your Pantry

Vinegar has been used as a condiment, preservative, and medicine since ancient times, dating back to at least 3,000 BC. Along with cheese, sourdough, miso, beer, wine, and sauerkraut, vinegar is one of the versatile foods and beverages created by fermentation. Unlike beer and wine, vinegar undergoes a double fermentation. Initially yeast transforms the sugars in fruit or grain into alcohol, then acetobacter bacteria ferments that alcohol into acetic acid.

The word vinegar comes from the Old French “vyn egre” meaning “sour wine,” and it’s likely vinegar-making was discovered accidentally when wine inadvertently exposed to airborne acetobacter was “ruined.” Except those early unintentional vinegar makers realized their ruined wine could be put to other delicious uses.

As the growth of most food-borne pathogens is inhibited in a low pH environment, vinegar’s high acid has long made it useful in food preservation. Many countries create pickles using vinegar, including the cucumbers, onions, chilies, and green beans popular in the United States. Italians make giardiniera (pickled carrot, cauliflower, celery, and red peppers), Vietnamese pickle carrot and daikon (do chua) to serve at almost every meal, and eggs pickled in malt vinegar are a popular bar snack in England. As vinegar can be made from any starch-rich plant, usually grain or fruit, there’s a whole range of different vinegars that can be used across a world of cuisines. Here are 13 vinegars you should always have in your pantry to pep up dishes.

The most common vinegar in the kitchen is made from white wine. While this no doubt initially happened by mistake, today an acetobacter “mother” (like a sourdough starter) is deliberately added to wine to create vinegar. Acetobacter is powerful and can easily ruin a batch of wine even in small amounts, so winemakers keep their wine well away from any source of it. A batch of wine that’s deemed not fit for market however — usually due to a fault such as mild oxidation — can be turned into vinegar rather than being wasted.

Combined with oil, mustard, salt, and pepper, white wine vinegar is the base for a simple French vinaigrette dressing. It can also be used instead of wine to deglaze pans, adding a refreshing lift to sauces. White wine vinegar is popular in marinades — where its acid helps to tenderize proteins — and also essential in the court bouillon used to poach fish. A splash is often added to the poaching water for eggs to help set them and to stabilize egg whites for meringues. White wine vinegar can also be used instead of lemon juice when making mayonnaise.

Red wine vinegar is made in the same way as white wine vinegar, except using wine made from red grapes. It has a similar acid level, but a more robust flavor and earthier aroma. Red wine vinegar is typically used in richer, darker dishes where the color won’t affect the visual appeal of the food.

Red wine vinegar is delicious in marinades for red meat and sauces for rich braised dishes like beef stews. It can be used to make a vinaigrette for any salad but is especially popular in heartier combinations such as lentil salads, and those containing bitter greens and crunchy pork lardons like a classic salade Lyonnaise. While oysters are a delicate ingredient, one of the most classic sauces served with them is mignonette, based on red wine vinegar mixed with finely chopped shallots. Classic French gastrique is a sweet-sour sauce made by caramelizing sugar then deglazing the pan with red wine vinegar, it’s often used as a base for game dishes such as duck or venison.

Sweet vinegar sounds like a contradiction and this special category of vinegar is more correctly called by its Spanish name, agridulce, or Italian, agrodolce, meaning bitter-sweet. These condiments are made by adding a sweetener to vinegar –– typically wine vinegar sweetened with concentrated grape juice –– and sold as a premium product by wineries and vinegar makers. Cheaper commercial versions may however be made with any sort of vinegar sweetened with any concentrated juice or even cane sugar.

Agrodolce vinegars may be aged in wooden barrels for months or years, though not necessarily. While wood aging can add complexity and smoothness to vinegar, and may allow for some evaporation and therefore concentration, it doesn’t perceptibly increase the sweetness. For aging, vinegar can be stored in a single barrel or in a solera system where it’s moved through a series of barrels fractionally blending younger vinegar with some of the older vinegar in the solera to add further depth and nuance to the flavor.

Traditionally the juice for sweetened vinegars was concentrated by boiling, which added deep, cooked caramel notes. In modern commercial productions the juice is often reduced by reverse osmosis, keeping the flavors brighter and fresher. Either way, agrodolce vinegars are generally used as “finishing vinegars,” drizzled over salads and other dishes to add an intriguing bitter-sweet note before serving.

Traditional balsamic vinegar is made in only two Italian provinces – Modena and Reggio Emilia — both in the region of Emilia-Romagna. It’s made from just grape juice that’s been simmered for hours to reduce it (“mosto cotto” in Italian) plus time. Traditional balsamic vinegar is aged for years in a solera system and fractionally blended, moving through a succession of different size barrels made from various woods including juniper, cherry, and chestnut.

In Modena, producers send their vinegar to the controlling consortium to be tasted by a panel. If it makes the grade, the consortium bottles it in the distinctive bulbous 100 milliliter bottles, numbers and seals the bottles with the consortium’s guarantee. Only then is it returned to the producer to add their branded label. Reggio Emilia has similar strict guidelines ensuring that inferior products cannot be released.

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is bottled with just two age statements: white capped Tradizionali has a minimum age of 12 years, and gold cap Extravecchio is aged for a minimum 25 years. In Reggio Emilia red signifies 12 years, silver 18 years, and gold 25 years. Due to the fractional blending of the solera system, age statements refer to a minimum age as some vinegar in each bottle is much older, a small amount going back to when the solera was established. Soleras can be over 100 years old and, in the vinegar-making families of Modena, traditionally a new solera is started when each female child is born, as part of her dowry. Try traditional balsamic vinegar dripped over ice cream or drizzled over buttered pasta or a simple risotto.

While white and red wine vinegar is made in most wine producing areas, some regions create distinctive vinegars from their unique wines. Sherry vinegar –– Vinagre de Jerez –– comes from Andalusia in southern Spain and is protected under European law by a PDO appellation (Protected Designation of Origin). Its creation is governed by the same body that oversees the production of Sherry.

Sherry vinegar can only be made from Sherry wine and is aged in the same sort of solera system, blending the youngest vinegar with older vinegars during aging. Despite being made from a white grape (palomino) Sherry vinegar is a deep mahogany color with a rich flavor. It’s one of the most versatile vinegars, with a flavor between the sharpness of basic red or white wine vinegar and the sweetness of agrodolce vinegar. Sherry vinegar is an essential ingredient in Spanish dishes such as gazpacho and is delicious drizzled over Manchego cheese and grilled red peppers. Just as Sherry is enjoyed throughout Spain, Sherry vinegar is popular in dishes around the country, especially in the Basque area spanning northern Spain and southwestern France.

In Roussillon, in southeastern France, another distinctive vinegar is produced from fortified wine. Vinaigre de Banyuls is made from aged sweet red Banyuls wine and then further barrel-aged for months, sometimes longer. Like Sherry vinegar, Banyuls vinegar has a rich mahogany color and nutty, oxidative flavor. It’s sweeter and more rounded than its Spanish counterpart and often paired with the rich game dishes of southeastern France such as foie gras, pork, and game birds such as duck.

When we talk about wine, we’re generally referring to fermented grape juice. In parts of the world where grapes don’t grow, however, similar beverages are traditionally made from other fruits. Apples thrive in the colder parts of the United States, England, and northern Europe (such as Brittany in France), where it’s too cold to grow grapes, and cider is traditionally made in these areas instead of wine.

Acetobacter can work its magic in any alcohol below about 12% alcohol by volume (abv) and so vinegar can be made from any low alcohol liquid. Apple cider vinegar is one of the easiest vinegars to make at home –– you don’t even need to use edible apples as apple cider vinegar can be made from apple peels, cores, and off-cuts.

Apple cider vinegar can be used wherever you’d use a grape-based vinegar, and has a natural affinity in salads containing apples, with pork, and in fruit-based chutneys. It’s especially popular in barbecue marinades and sauces and often used in baking. Combined with milk it’s an alternative to buttermilk and it adds the acid to alkaline baking soda to form a raising agent. Apple cider vinegar has also long been considered a health tonic as well as used as a skin toner and hair treatment.

Vinegar can be infused with all sorts of herbs and other ingredients to create distinctive flavors. Certain combinations, however, have proven popular over many years and earned a place in the culinary canon. Tarragon vinegar (vinaigre à l’estragon in French) is one of the best known due to its use in a classic sauce Béarnaise. As tarragon grows abundantly there, a few stalks are often added to the chardonnay vinegar of Burgundy. Tarragon vinegar adds an herbal, slightly anise note to typical bistro dishes such as poulet à l’estragon (tarragon chicken) and vinaigrettes used to dress vegetables such as green beans and leeks.

Especially in France and the UK, raspberries have long been used to make a delicious infused vinegar. Raspberry vinegar has been made since at least the 16th century and likely started out as a medicinal tincture, later finding its way into the kitchen. Raspberries are steeped in white wine vinegar before the resulting pink vinegar is drained off and bottled. Raspberry vinegar has a slightly sweet, fruity flavor and is delicious in salad dressings and even used to add a sweet-sour-fruity note to some desserts.

Perhaps the first vinegar made –– certainly the first one documented –– was date vinegar, which is mentioned in texts from Ancient Babylon that are at least 5,000 years old. The traditional process for making date vinegar, still used by home cooks today, is indicative of its antiquity and origin before the double fermentation process of vinegar was understood.

Date vinegar is traditionally made by steeping whole dates in water until the wild yeasts on the skin of the fruit ferment the dates’ sugar into alcohol. Left longer in an open vessel, airborne acetobacter acts on the alcohol to create vinegar; though today the date wine may also be inoculated with a “vinegar mother,” the white film from a previous batch of vinegar that contains the acetobacter. Either way, the result is a rich fruity vinegar.

In the Middle East, one of date vinegar’s earliest uses would likely have been to pickle vegetables to help preserve them before the days of refrigeration. Today it’s still a popular ingredient in the pickles that are enjoyed at most meals, as well as being used as a marinade and key ingredient in traditional meat dishes, such as the Omani slow-cooked lamb, called shuwa.

Records of vinegar production in China date to around 3,000 years ago. The Chinese prized vinegar for its preservative qualities as well as using it as a medicinal tonic. It was often made from rice wine, but also from other fermented grains such as millet and sorghum. From China, the production of rice wine vinegar spread to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia.

The sugars in grains aren’t as readily available as they are in fruits. Making a grain-based vinegar therefore requires a preliminary step that converts the complex starches in the grains into the simpler sugars that yeasts can convert into alcohol. This chemical transformation from starch to sugar is called malting.

To make rice vinegar, the starches are turned to sugar by first cooking the rice and inoculating it with koji mold –– which is also used in the production of miso and soy sauce. The koji breaks down the starches in the rice turning them into simple sugars which yeast then ferments into alcohol, making rice wine. The rice wine is further fermented by acetobacter into rice vinegar.

In Japan rice vinegar is available in different forms for a variety of uses. Pure rice vinegar is often used for pickling vegetables, whereas seasoned rice vinegar (mixed with salt, sugar, and mirin) is used to make sushi rice. Don’t confuse rice wine with rice vinegar, while mirin looks similar to rice vinegar, it’s actually sweet rice wine that hasn’t undergone secondary fermentation into sour vinegar.

As well as clear rice vinegar, the Chinese produce black rice vinegar, called Chinkiang (or Zhenjiang), which is especially popular in the coastal province of Jiangsu, just north of Shanghai. Black vinegar is often made from glutinous rice, sometimes with other grains added, and aged in terracotta crocks for months, sometimes years, until it develops a complex savory flavor. It’s especially popular as a dipping sauce for dumplings and braised meats and in the region of Sichuan is also used as a dipping sauce for cold noodle dishes.

China’s other colorful vinegar is red rice vinegar. The rice for red vinegar is fermented with Monascus purpureus, a naturally red mold, rather than the koji mold used for clear rice vinegar. Chinese red rice vinegar is aged for at least a few months, but often several years, in wooden barrels or ceramic vessels until it develops a mellow flavor and rich red color. Chinese red vinegar is lower in acid than most other vinegars and is a great dipping sauce for delicate dumplings and noodles. It’s popular in marinades for rich meats, such as pork and duck, and also used to dress cold meat salads. It’s especially popular in the cuisines of southern China such as Cantonese and Fujian.

Vinegar is generally produced from whatever carbohydrate-rich ingredients are locally abundant. In parts of Asia –– especially the Philippines, southern India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia –– that’s often coconuts. Coconut vinegar can be made from either the liquid inside coconuts (coconut water) or the sap gathered from immature coconut blossoms.

Coconut vinegar is an essential ingredient in many Filipino dishes, including the spicy, tart dipping sauce called sinamak that appears alongside most fried, baked, or grilled meat and seafood. It’s also commonly used in Filipino adobo –– a vinegary stew flavored with soy sauce and garlic –– and the marinated fish dish called kinilaw.

Coconut trees abound in Sri Lanka and southern Indian, especially in the western coastal regions of Kerala and Goa, where coconut vinegar plays a key role in vindaloo. In Kerala the sap from coconut blossoms is fermented into toddy, usually spontaneously due to wild yeast. Left for a few days longer, that toddy often undergoes a second fermentation with wild acetobacter, creating coconut vinegar which is used in traditional dishes such as fish sukka masala.

Barley is an important grain crop in Britain, especially in the north where it’s too cold to grow wheat. As well as being used in the production of beer and whiskey, in the UK barley is used to make malt vinegar.

Unlike the sugars in fruit, the carbohydrates in grains don’t readily ferment. So barley must be malted to convert its complex starches into simpler sugars, which yeasts can then ferment into alcohol. To do this, barley grains are soaked in water to trigger germination, which activates enzymes that convert the starches to sugar, then kiln-dried to stop the germination. The malted barley can then be fermented into a low beer which is inoculated with acetobacter to create malt vinegar.

While some commercial malt vinegar is made quickly, traditionally it’s aged in wooden barrels to mellow and develop a more complex flavor. Good malt vinegar has a malty, toasty flavor and slightly roasted, yeasty aroma. It’s the classic accompaniment to British fish and chips and also popular for pickling the eggs and onions that often appear as bar snacks in Britain.

White spirit vinegar, also called distilled white vinegar, is the most basic vinegar. Clear in color with a sharp acidic flavor, it’s made from industrial alcohol fermented from beets, corn, or other excess agricultural produce that’s been distilled into a strong, clear spirit. It has no distinctive flavor beyond sour, is inexpensive, and widely used in commercial pickles and other industrial preparations requiring a pure acidic flavor.

Spirit vinegar can be used instead of white wine vinegar where only a splash is needed, such as in baking to activate alkaline baking soda to add lift to muffins, cakes, pancakes, and breads like soda bread. It can also be used to stabilize egg whites for meringues, in poaching water to help set eggs, and in boiling water for vegetables to help lock in their color. Diluted with water, spirit vinegar is also used to wash fruit and vegetables to remove surface bacteria and for cleaning, especially ensuring cutlery and glasses are streak free.