[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.
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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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