Top Alternatives to Apple Cider Vinegar for Your Cooking

There are many mouthwatering ways to cook with apple cider vinegar, which is an increasingly popular ingredient. However, if you’ve run out, there are some good substitues. We spoke to chef Matthew Stowe from Joey Restaurants, a growing chain of casual restaurants whose newest location is Joey Valley Fair in Santa Clara, California, for expert tips on what to use instead of apple cider vinegar.

Chef Stowe’s focus for apple cider vinegar substitutes is sauces that simmer and reduce over the stove. Logically, his first suggestion is other types of vinegars, saying, “As far as vinegars [to substitute] go, I love a good quality white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, or sherry vinegar.” These three varieties all come from a green-grape wine varietal. Consequently, they’re similar to each other and they all three have a comparable sweetness and fruity profile to apple cider vinegar. However, Stowe is an advocate of most types of vinegar to bring depth to sauces, saying, “If you add just a few drops of really any type of vinegar, it could be red wine vinegar, apple cider, white wine, it really kind of wakes the sauce up and brings it back to life and makes it taste a little bit fresher.”

While different types of vinegar were Matthew Stowe’s primary choice for apple cider vinegar substitutes, there are even more swaps that are just as useful. The main criteria when it comes to apple cider vinegar substitutes, according to chef Stowe, is acidity. He says, “You could use a small amount of anything acidic, so you could use lemon juice, you could use tamarind, a small amount of that to bring some acidity to it. Anything that has higher acid.”

Citrus like lemons, limes, yuzu, and even grapefruit may be more perishable than vinegar, but they’re also regular items in many kitchens. Lemon is found in plenty of famous sauces, such as cream or egg-based French steak sauces like hollandaise. Lime and yuzu have a subtle fruity sweetness that might better mimic apple cider vinegar, however. And don’t overlook Tamarind; the acidic fruit is popular in tropical countries from Mexico to Vietnam, and comes in paste form like this Rani tamarind paste puree and pulp form like this Thai seedless tamarind block. It packs a powerful punch and would work as a vinegar substitute in hot sauces like this buffalo wing sauce recipe, as would lime.

Apple cider vinegar substitutes are a simple one-to-one swap; a little goes a long way. Chef Stowe recommends “just a few drops of [vinegar substitute] into a sauce at the end, especially a long simmering red wine sauce or … something that’s cooked for a long time.” We have a red wine mushroom sauce for steak that you could add a dash of sherry vinegar to, for instance. Other simmered sauces that you could try the swap on include barbecue sauce, like this bourbon chile barbecue sauce. A splash of vinegar is an essential part of uncooked sauces, too, like this smoky romesco sauce. 

Stowe says, “we’re talking about, say, 500 milliliters — or if you’re talking in cups, two cups of sauce — you might be adding like three, four, five mils. When you taste the sauce, you shouldn’t say, “oh wow, you’ve put vinegar in it.” You don’t have to be too precise when adding vinegar to sauce, as long as you don’t overdo it. A half a teaspoon of vinegar or the juice of a quarter of a lemon or lime would work in most instances. A good rule of thumb is to start small and add more if needed.

The bottom line is that an apple cider vinegar substitute is better than omitting the acidity altogether because, as Stowe says, “It really does bring up the flavor of the sauce. You’ll appreciate some of the other background flavors more by just having a few drops in it at the end.”