Why A Splash Of Vinegar Will Change Your Soup Forever - Tasting Table (2024)

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Why A Splash Of Vinegar Will Change Your Soup Forever - Tasting Table? ›

It may seem too easy, but a few splashes of vinegar really can make your food taste less salty or sweet. The taste of vinegar is strong enough that it helps mask other overpowering flavors, and most soups benefit from a little acidity anyway.

Adding Vinegar in Soup

It may sound a bit strange and unusual for some, but vinegar is a common ingredient in some soup recipes, and there is a good reason for it. If you think about it, vinegar is really a flavor-enhancer (umami). That's why it is so often used in cooking, sauces, and salad dressings.

As a condiment, vinegar confers a sharpness to fatty foods or bland dishes. Its ability to extract flavor components from herbs and spices has led to the production of a wide range of vinegars with flavorings such as garlic, chillies, and tarragon and salad dressings containing flavored vinegars.

The acidity or sourness of vinegar brightens the flavor of food and adds balance to a rich dish. It is found in popular kitchen staples like salad dressings, marinades, sauces, mayonnaise, and ketchup.

A splash, by comparison is about 1/2 teaspoon. However, neither glug nor splash should be called for in recipes that require exact measurements. As Kimball put it, “A glug and a splash is not going to be for making sponge cake. It's going to be for making a soup or a stew.”

The best way to counteract vinegar if too much is put into soup is to add a sweetener, such as sugar or honey, to balance out the flavor. You can also add dairy, such as cream, milk, or yogurt, or a starch, such as potatoes, rice, or pasta, to help mellow out the acidity of the vinegar.

First and foremost, it is used to flavor. Depending on the variety, vinegar can bring a sour, tangy, sweet, mild, malty, woody or even buttery flavor to your dish. It can also be used to color or discolor foods.

Tomato Soup: I used to think the only finishing touch my tomato soup needed was grilled cheese, but now I know the key to a fantastic tomato soup is a splash of aged balsamic vinegar. The sweetness will help neutralize the acidity of the tomatoes, while its tang will awaken their deep umami notes.

White vinegar is stronger than apple cider with a higher percentage of acetic acid. Reach for apple cider vinegar when you want to add flavor to salad dressings and sauces. Choose distilled white vinegar when you want to pickle foods or add acidity without imparting any extra flavors.

What happens if you put too much vinegar in food? ›

If too much vinegar is added to a recipe, it can make the dish overly sour and unbalanced in flavor. This can also make the texture of the dish unappetizing.

Vinegar helps boiled potatoes hold their shape

The presence of acid in boiling water can retain structure-providing carbs in potatoes, so they don't break down and soften as easily as they would in a pot of boiling water sans vinegar.

The addition of a mildly acidic vinegar to a starchy veggie like potatoes not only deepens the flavor profile, but it also helps to tenderize the tubers.

The Kitchn concurs that vinegar is a "one ingredient" fix when your soup does not meet your taste bud's expectations. But don't overdo it. A little vinegar goes a long way. The Kitchn suggests just "half a teaspoon or more" of vinegar can punch up the flavor of your broth.

It was dipped in vinegar (Ancient Greek: ὄξος, romanized: oxos; in some translations sour wine), most likely posca, a regular beverage of Roman soldiers, and offered to Jesus to drink from during the Crucifixion, according to Matthew 27:48, Mark 15:36, and John 19:29.

A touch of vinegar adds a little "kick" to the soup. If you like salt and vinegar chips, you'll like this. By only adding vinegar to the serving bowl you'll leave the pot vinegar-free for those who don't like it.

The acidity in lemon juice and vinegar can help mask the heat and brighten the other flavors in your soup, so stir in 1 tablespoon (15 ml). Try your soup to see if it's still too spicy for you. If it is, put in another 1 tablespoon (15 ml) at a time until you're happy with how your soup tastes.

Add Vinegar To Begin With To Avoid Oversalting

By adding a splash of an acidic ingredient to your soup as you cook it, you'll reduce the need to add as much salt, while still highlighting and deepening the flavors in the pot.

But another indispensable bone broth ingredient comes in the form of vinegar, typically apple cider vinegar. You need this, not only for its slight acidic bite, but also to help extract the collagen and nutrients from the bones which give bone broth its richness and depth of flavor.

Vinegar can add depth of flavour to soups, sauces, and stews. Especially great for tomato-based recipes, you can add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar towards the end of the cooking process to amplify the flavours of your other ingredients.