Vinegars all share one thing in common: acidity. That can make it all too easy to lump them together and ignore the differences that set each type apart.
“All vinegars begin as a grain, fruit or vegetable,” cookbook author Martha Holmberg wrote for us several years ago. “They get fermented to become an alcoholic liquid. The alcohol in that liquid gets fermented into acetic acid. The result is a liquid with serious tang and some notes of its original ingredient — hence the slight apple-y flavor of apple cider vinegar and the delicate grape notes of white wine vinegar.”
