Cooking TipsCooking Tips - 8 Surprising Ways To Use Vinegar
On its own, vinegar can be about as appealing as Borax, but if it is used at the right time with the right ingredients, the results are astonishing. Here are a few clever things you can do with vinegar while you are cooking, and why this very useful liquid might end up next to the olive oil on your kitchen counter.
1) Soak vegetables
Get better-tasting vegetables by soaking them for just a couple of minutes in a large bowl with room-temperature water, a tablespoon or two of vinegar and about a teaspoon of salt. This is a better and vastly cheaper way to really clean up vegetables than the expensive vegetable wash products that are starting to become available. Washing vegetables like this will not only make them taste a lot better, but you will also remove the bugs, extra dirt, wax, pesticides and all the germs those vegetables have collected in their long trip from the field to your kitchen.
2) Wash meats
A vinegar wash of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water will drastically reduce the number of bacteria on the meat (this is good for whole chickens and turkeys, too, where there are hundreds of little crevices for bacteria to grow). As vinegar is both a meat tenderizer and a natural antiseptic, you will be getting two benefits from a very quick, easy procedure. And with more meat recalls happening every day, and more information about how our meats are processed, a little extra vinegar is a prudent precaution. You can also use a quarter cup of vinegar in a marinade for 2-3 pounds of meat. The vinegar will kill all germs and do a nice job of tenderizing the cut.
3) Better rice
Make tastier rice by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the water you are cooking the rice in.
4) Need an egg?
If you are short one egg, you can substitute with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. Just make sure the recipe you are making has one other rising agent, like self-rising flour, baking soda or baking power.
5) Lend a lemon flavor
Back before lemons were available year-round, cooks used vinegar to mimic lemon flavor. It still works, but if you are trying it for the first time, use just barely enough. Too much vinegar will be noticeable as vinegar, instead of being lemon-like.
6) Cut the gas
Add a tablespoon or two of vinegar to the bean-soaking water of bean dishes to reduce their ability to cause gas. You can also cut the gassy effects of some steamed vegetables by adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the water you are steaming.
7) Cheese extender
Make your cheese last longer by wrapping it in a cloth (yes, cheesecloth will do) that has been wetted with vinegar. For extra protection put the wrapped cheese in an air-tight container.
8) Cut the starch
Add a teaspoon or less of vinegar to the water you are boiling pasta in to reduce the starch and make it less sticky. This makes especially diet-friendly pasta, because if the pasta is less sticky you will need less butter or oil