How do I use vinegar and acid in cooking?

Long cooking flattens acidity, which is why slow-cooked dishes often taste heavy despite being well seasoned. Adding acid at the end restores the brightness that cooking removed, and it is the single most transformative habit in home cooking after seasoning properly.

What you'll need

• Lemons (optional)
• Wine vinegar (optional)
• Balsamic or cider vinegar (optional)

Step by step

1. Add acid at the end, not the start.Cooking drives off the volatile compounds that make acid taste bright. A squeeze at the end does what the same acid added an hour earlier cannot.
2. Use red or white wine vinegar as your default.Clean, sharp and versatile. It suits dressings, sauces and finishing almost anything savoury.
3. Use cider vinegar where you want a fruitier note.Softer and slightly sweet. Good with pork, apples, cabbage and in slaws.
4. Use balsamic sparingly and as a seasoning.It is sweet as well as acidic. A small amount finishes roasted vegetables and tomatoes well; a lot dominates everything.
5. Use lemon and lime where you want aroma as well as acid.Citrus brings volatile aromatics that vinegar does not. Zest as well as juice — the oils in the peel carry most of the aroma.
6. Use acid to balance richness and sweetness.A rich stew, a creamy sauce or an over-sweet tomato sauce are all corrected by a small amount of acid rather than by more salt.
7. Make a quick pickle with vinegar, water, sugar and salt.Equal vinegar and water with a spoon each of sugar and salt, poured over sliced vegetables. Ready in an hour and it lifts any heavy dish.
8. Add it gradually and taste.Acid is easy to overshoot and hard to correct. A teaspoon at a time, tasting between.

Tips

• If a dish tastes flat and salt is not helping, it almost certainly needs acid. This single diagnosis rescues an enormous number of meals.
• Do not use acidic marinades for long periods. Acid denatures the surface of meat and turns it mealy rather than tender.
• Vinegar keeps essentially indefinitely. One good bottle of wine vinegar is a better purchase than five speciality ones.

Common mistakes

• Adding acid at the start of a long cook — The brightness cooks off. Acid added at the end does something acid added early cannot.
• Using balsamic as a general-purpose vinegar — It is sweet as well as sour and dominates. Wine vinegar is the versatile default.
• Adding too much at once — Acidity is easy to overshoot and difficult to correct. Add a teaspoon at a time and taste between.

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