Honestly very confused by how it can be a mainstream condiment/dressing. For me it’s just acidic. Doesn’t really taste of much but sorta tingles on my tongue/throat. Sorta like when you burp up a little stomach acid or a milder version of when you throw up stomach acid. Very confused about salt and vinegar chips and any sort of vinegar based salad dressing.
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I love acidic foods. It’s essential for cutting through the fatty richness of some dishes. Bacon’s nice but bacon with tomato is amazing. Ham and cheese on bread are dece but it’s not really a sandwich without mustard. Most soups are better with a squeeze of citrus. And so on, and so on.
Vinegar is another kind of acid, or really two kinds: Fermented vinegar is very different from distilled vinegar. Most people like fermented vinegar in moderation, and some (including me) like it even out of moderation. I will soak good bread in balsamic and eat it strait, for example. I barely put oil on my salads, it’s mostly vinegar.
Distilled vinegar is the kind you clean with, but you can eat it, too. I think maybe overfamiliarity with it as a cleaning product may dampem some people’s desire to consume vinegar; I myself never used it for cleaning growing up, except small amounts to treat laundry.
Tomato and bacon pizza is godly
I’m a sucker for all kinds of pickles on pizza, especially peperoncini or pickled red onions.
Salt & Vinegar chips are amazing
Roger that!
I didn’t like them the first time I tried them, but they are awesome!
I’m also a big fan of these
YES, these are excellent
Vinegar, lemon juice and other acids bring a sour flavor to a dish that when combined with other flavors can add a brightness to it.
On its own? Absolutely not. But the right amount to balance flavor? Absolutely.
Vinegar with a side of fried potatoes? Absolutely
I actually like vinegar by itself but it’s too potent to just drink it straight. Instead I’ll get a bunch of green onions and let them soak in the vinegar, then I suck the vinegar out of the green onions and enjoy the onion itself as a crunchy snack after.
Right. I’m not gonna drink a cup of it, but I fucking love vinegar in a balanced flavor pallette. Hell, maybe even a bit unbalanced. The other day we had a hazmat spill at work and used vinegar to neutralize it. Smelled so goddamn good I had to make buffalo chicken for dinner.
I love it. And there are so many kinds! I keep a bunch on hand for different things: red wine, white, rice wine, apple cider, balsamic, malt, etc… they all taste quite different.
Pickles, salt and vinegar chips, fish and chips with malt vinegar, Chinese hot and sour soup, rustic Italian bread with EVOO and balsamic vinegar, chicken adobo, sinigang, chicharron dipped in spicy sukang, and the list goes on if you want to live a more substantial life with vinegar
Pop some Tums dipped in Tabasco if your body attempts to digest itself inside out
Here’s a trick you can use to fool people into thinking you can cook:
Fry a chicken breast. Ideally, sauté, which just means: get a few tablespoons of canola oil in the pan almost smoking hot, dry the breast with paper towels - like, super dry - then fry the breasts a few minutes on each side. Put a little salt and pepper on the uncooked side as you’re frying it. Flip it only once, fry the other side. It’ll get that crispy brown coating.
When both sides are done, take it out, lower the temp of the pan to about medium, then dump a half-bottle of balsamic vinegar on there. I’m not joking - pour that shit in, a half bottle. Add some more salt & pepper - not too much! - tarragon, it you have it, and just boil it, stirring frequently. Scrape the bottom of the pan while you’re doing it; make sure you scrape up any bits of chicken. Keep boiling that stuff. It’ll boil down to less than half - when you can dip a spoon in curved-side down and lift it up and the sauce coats the spoon (doesn’t just run off), take it off the heat immediately.
It’ll be thick, and you’ll get maybe a quarter cup reduced from the cup you dumped in. It’ll thicken further as it cools. Let it cool, just a little, then drizzle that over the chicken.
Most of the acidity will be gone, and it’ll be a sweet syrup, and it’s fantastic.
But here’s the real magic: you can deglaze a pan and reduce almost anything that has sugars on it. Amaretto Chicken isn’t chicken cooked in amaretto: it’s chicken, with an amaretto reduction made exactly like I described for the balsamic above. Basically; I know the chefs are going to come out of the woodwork, but honestly. Try it with Grand Marnier liquor for an orange twist.
Wine needs more work, and white or red vinegar won’t do - there aren’t enough sugars for a reduction, but any liquor will do. Balsamic is my favorite.
One final trick: the balsamic reduction is best with tuna steaks. With those, you want them to hit the pan, sit for maybe 15 seconds, flip, 15s, and done. Pink in the middle with brown sides.
The most important things about all this are: high heat, and very dry meat. Get that stuff as dry as you can, with paper towels, or hand towels if you like washing clothes. It’s the water on the surface of what you’re cooking that causes oil to splatter, and everything works better when the meat, or tofu, is as dry as you can make it.
Final word: cast iron skillet.
Lol that’s not a trick - you’re describing cooking.
Sshhh.
Thing is, nobody explains how easy these things are to do. Deglazing a pan. Making a reduction. Sauté-ing. They sound fancy, but they’re really, really simple; and sauté is so often misdescribed in recipes it’s become a pet peeve of mine. When I read instructions like, “sauté on medium heat” it drives me nuts. Sauté isn’t just a fancy word for frying. High heat, short cook time: it’s the definition!
Although my post went on a bit long, I was mostly saying that adding a little salt, pepper, and an herb to a lot of a high-suger liquid like balsamic vinegar, or Amaretto, or Cointreau, and boiling it down makes a wonderful sauce; and it’s easy to do.
I see recipes with 30 ingredients and 20 steps, and sometimes that’s needed, but usually not. My favorite bread recipe is “combine all ingredients in a mixer, mix for 5 minutes.” It doesn’t have to be more complex than that.
The best description of good food I’ve ever heard is: “quality ingredients, prepared simply.”
I wish someone had shown me when I was in my 20’s how simple some of these things are to do, hidden behind fancy names and complex recipes. A handful of easy techniques can produce a large variety of dishes just by changing ingredients, and I think that is a trick.
FYI that’s shallow pan frying you are describing. sauté means to jump and the food should be almost constantly moving.
One of the things a sauté does is prevent a fond from forming. That keeps the flavor on the food and a deglaze is not necessary or helpful.
As my chief friend said when you are barefoot at the beach and the sand is hot you sauté to the shade.
https://cookingpro.net/what-is-the-definition-and-type-of-sauteing/
Ohh man, don’t know what it’s called but we make a dip we call Italian bread dip. Use whatever dried spices you want (garlic/onion powder, oregano, basil, thyme, red pepper flakes, etc.) mix in olive oil and basalmic vinegar (I do it by eye and taste but usually around a 2:1 oil: vinegar), mix then rip off fresh crush bread dip and eat. I have to add more vinegar becuase my family loves the tangy flavor.
There are lots of different types of vinegar with different flavors and acidities. I frequently use malt vinegar, rice wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar when I cook and even as a condiment
I don’t see how it’s any different than using lemon or lime juice 🤷♂️
I dip salt and vinegar chips in vinegar. I’m a freak.
That sounds amazing! What type of vinegar do you recommend?
I’ve tried all the ones I could think of and honestly, just classic white vinegar is my go to for it but red wine vinegar can go well with them as well. You may like the malt vinegar flavor but I wasn’t a fan of the pairing personally. Go easy on it though cos your tongue with feel pruned after a bunch of them
Your loss.
German potato salad is vinegar based. Delicious.
South German.
Bavarian, yes. Good distinction.
The Swabians commit the same culinary crime. Thats why I said southern Germany. It is not just Bavaria.
TIL. Thanks.
I love vinegar, when I was a kid id drink it straight. And I love salt and vinegar chips.
Alright vinegar gang assemble!
I’ll shoot vinegar into my veins if it wasn’t illegal and salt and vinegar chips are the ultimate flavor.
I don’t think its illegal, but your doctor may lock you up if you tell them you’re trying to inject some
Love it, honestly it’s the only foods that I can think of how it tastes and my salivary glands go off. There are times when I crave it in some capacity.
If you like Asian food, vinegar is a staple ingredient and condiment. You probably don’t notice that some food you eat uses vinegar.
It’s probably the best flavor we have
Mm pickles :3
