SC - white vinegar

[Stefan li Rous]

Maire asked about my assertion that white vinegar was made from
petroleum oil: 
> Are you sure? Gods, that sounds nasty! I'd always be led to believe that
> it was grain-based.  Also, be wary of buying the larger-sized bottles of
> "cider vinegar."  The small ones at my local stores actually contain
> _cider_ vinegar, but when I checked the larger (gallon-sized) bottles
> they _all_ (brand didn't matter) contained white vinegar with flavor
> added.
> - --Maire
> 
> Stefan li Rous wrote:
> ><snippage> 
> > But are you aware it is made from
> > petroleum oil? I was not aware of this myself until it was brought
> > up here on this list. What about using apple cider vinegar? This vinegar
> > is probably the least expensive of the natural vinegars and the apple
> > taste might be a good addition.

Well, apparently I was not completely correct. It can be from petroleum
oil, but it can be made from other things, too. I have not had a chemical
analysis done. My knowledge on this (like a lot of other things) comes
solely from comments on this list. I have appended an excerpt from
my vinegar-msg file below.

Thanks for your further caution. I will add it to the vinegar-msg file.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

> Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 21:29:54 -0500
> From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - high grain all-natural vinegar?
> 
> Chip wrote:
> > It seems that I once heard about petroleum-derived vinegar being fairly
> > common, but not common knowledge.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Anybody know if there's any truth to this?
> >
> > Red wine, rice wine, malt and Balsamic for me, thanks.
> 
> You forgot my two favorites, sherry and champagne.
> 
> Yes, distilled white vinegar can be made from petroleum. Not all of it
> is, though, so it may be hard to determine based on a bottle of the
> stuff. On a molecular level, acetic acid is acetic acid, and since
> there's nothing, AFAIK, in distilled white vinegar other than acetic
> acid and water, I don't worry too much about it.
> 
> Adamantius