[Sca-cooks] white vinegar

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sat May 7 13:35:50 PDT 2011


Arianwen ferch Arthur asked me:
<<< Where did you find that distilled vinegar is made from petroleum  
products? >>>

Not all distilled vinegar, but a surpisingly large amount is. I first  
heard this on this list, and then I started looking on the bottles of  
distilled vinegar in the store. While the smaller, and more expensive,  
bottles would say they were from natural products, the larger bottles  
would say they were from petroleum. Even from the same manufacturer,  
Heinz, I believe.

So I've been using other vinegars in foods. Besides, it is the other  
trace elements in these other vinegars which give the taste and tones.  
I've also been careful to specify "white wine vinegar" rather than  
just "white vinegar" when giving ingredient lists.

From: vinegar-msg (152K) 3/17/11 Vinegar in period. Making vinegar.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/vinegar-msg.html

Also see these files on vinegar, also in the Florilegium FOOD section:
Vinegar-art (20K) 5/26/01 "What's so special about Vinegar?" by  
Mistress Christianna MacGrain.

Vinegar-NJFCC-art (18K) 10/23/01 "Vinegar: Not Just for Cleaning  
Coffeepots" by THL Mirin ben DhIarmait.

-------

Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 21:29:54 -0500

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.

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
-------
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:40:41 -0500

 From http://www.nowheat.com/fooddb/food/vinegar.htm

Distilled vinegar is not distilled. The name merely means that it is  
made from distilled alcohol. This is done in a fermentation process in  
which the fermenting bacteria, a species of Acetobacter, oxidizes the  
added alcohol to acetic acid. The fermentation mixture is filtered and  
diluted to give an acetic acid concentration of about 5%. This is  
vinegar. It does contain nitrogenous material which is in part derived  
from the nutrient mixture added to the fermentation in order to keep  
the Acetobacter growing, and in part from those bacteria that die and  
disintegrate during the fermentation.

This acetic fermentation is common to all vinegars so that they all  
contain the same kinds of nitrogenous 'contaminants', although in  
differing amounts.

...[T]he ethyl alcohol from which [distilled vinegar] is made is  
distilled from a yeast fermentation mixture. (In the UK, however, I  
believe that'distilled vinegar' has a different meaning, that it is  
made from malt and that it is in fact, distilled.) In most of the  
world, molasses, which can be fermented directly by yeast, is the  
major source of alcohol. Alcohol is also made synthetically from  
petroleum products but I do not believe that alcohol from this source  
is much used in the food industry. In the U.S., starches derived from  
grains are the major source, mostly (about 85%) from corn.
End quote.

Luanne Bartholomew

(Amorwynne of Dalriada ... for now)

-------

Stefan





--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





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