How to cook with vinegar

Cooking with vinegar is a tasty and healthy option for any chef, but it’s especially fantastic in Italian cooking. It has endless uses in the kitchen like tenderizing meats to salad dressings, using as a salt alternative, or a dipping sauce for breads.

You can use vinegar in baking bread to add a little zest to your dough. Just add one tablespoon of vinegar for ever 2 ½ cups of flour and reduce the amount of water added by the same amount. This will also help the dough to rise. Or you can brush the top of the bread with vinegar just before you take it out of the oven to add a little shine.

Cheeses can be kept soft and free of mold by wrapping them in a cloth soaked in vinegar and storing them in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Many cheeses are also very tasty dipped in balsamic vinegar, but make sure to use a milder cheese as balsamic has a very strong flavor.

Adding vinegar to pasta water before boiling will help the noodles to not stick, and give the final product a little zip that your guests won't be able to put their finger on. It will also help make rice fluffy when added to the rice water before cooking.

There are a thousand and one ways to use vinegar in cooking, and you should have a blast trying to discover them all. As an ingredient, preservative, or just a dip, vinegar is one of your most versatile tools in Italian and any other cooking. You should try to make as much use of it as possible!