[Sca-cooks] wine vinegar

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Alexa:
>  Greetings,
>
>I found a recipe for a sauce that uses wine vinegar.
>Well, I know there are a few different ones out there.
>  What would be the best for a period sauce recipe
>calling for 'wine vinegar'.  The recipe did not
>specify rice wine, red wine, etc. 
>
>Alexa

Well, if the recipe doesn't specify, you presumably have a choice, 
which may or may not be based upon the likelihood of red wine or 
white wine being more prevalent in the country of origin. So, for 
example, a German recipe might be slightly more likely to use a white 
wine vinegar (or alegar, for that matter), because while they did 
import and use red wines, they also made a lot of white wines. In 
southern Italy, say, red wine is probably a more likely candidate for 
vinegar production.

Then, there's the question of color. Which is better, or which do you 
prefer? In a sauce that's supposed to be white, you might find a 
little red wine vinegar changes that. How important is that to you? 
In something like a cameline sauce red is probably best; in a white 
garlic sauce, well, do the math.

Flavor, same thing. For me, I generally don't bother even buying red 
wine vinegar, because with the exception of balsamic, I usually don't 
like the stuff (even balsamic, to me, is usually kinda overrated); 
give me a good white wine vinegar, sherry or champagne vinegar any 
day.

Bottom line? It's up to you, based on your assessment as to which is 
more likely to be found in the time/place you're working with, and 
which you prefer.

Adamantius
-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

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