[Sca-cooks] good brands of vinegar

[Sharon Gordon]

A recent cooking or general living type magazine had a vinegar taste
testing.  At the moment I can't think which magazine though.  (How long does
it take before articles reach the periodical search engines?) One national
brand of vinegar that I have also had good luck with that was rated highly
in the taste test was the Heinz red wine vinegar.

If you ever happen to be in the area of Fairfield, Ohio and can go to Jungle
Jims, they have shelves and shelves of artisianal vinegars from mediteranean
countries.  All the vinegars I have ever gotten from there are good
including ones from small businesses for less than $2.00 a bottle.  They do
have some expensive ones which I never tried that are in jewel-like art
bottles.   (They have a similar depth of variety of olive oil, and I've had
good luck with perhaps 80% of the ones I've tried from there.)

I am guessing that in your area Italian grocery stores in Philadelphia and
NYC might have the best selections.

One mail order place in the US that I like that makes Italian style items is
the Viansa winery.
http://www.viansa.com
They have a variety of vinegars, good wines, and some interesting mustards
as well.  Actually pretty much everything they have is good :-).  And I
think their site would make a great event site for a feast/A&S/bardic event.
Fabulous ambiance.  They have a long trellis covered dining patio that runs
along the hilltop overlooking a vineyard.

If you'd like to have your own vinegar tasting, get 6-8 people or so to
bring a different kind.  Then taste it on some plain white bread.  Dense
white bread with a fine structure works best, but french or italian work
fairly well too.  Just avoid sourdough or strongly flavored breads.  I find
it works well to spoon the vinegar onto the bread rather than trying to pour
or dip it.

And it might just be my overdeveloped sense of taste, but I find that I like
vinegar (and oil, juice, mustard, jam etc) better if it comes in a glass
container rather than plastic.  (Though I've had good oil from quality metal
cans too.) Food in glass generally has a brighter fresher taste to me than
food in plastic.

I have a white vinegar  that I really liked that seems to have a live
vinegar mother culture in it.  Does anyone have people in their local groups
who are into brewing and make vinegar (on purpose :-) )?  I have stopped
using that bottle and thought it might be fun to try and use some of it to
make vinegar.  However I don't know how to do this and would like to have
some advice from someone with experience so there will be less risk of
losing the vinegar strain.

Sharon
gordonse at one.net