shelf life of vinegar
Can you settle a pressing disagreement?
Does vinegar ever go bad? When , if ever, does the Veil /Mother become inactive?
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Can you settle a pressing disagreement?
Does vinegar ever go bad? When , if ever, does the Veil /Mother become inactive?
11 Comments
My bottle of rice wine vinegar dates from the Mao administration.
That cloudiness is what is referred to as "mother" and it's totally harmless. It's formed by the same bacteria that convert alcohol to vinegar. If you don't like its looks, you can simply filter it out (just don't ever look closely at a bottle of unfiltered vinegar -- you'd be totally grossed out).
Bugbitten says the same thing below, but in different words: An open bottle of wine rapidly oxidizes and turns bad. An open bottle of vinegar doesn't go bad because it's already oxidized.
Technically that's an over simplification because there are things that can survive at the level of vinegar's acidity. As a matter of fact, that's how mother can form in a bottle of pasteurized vinegar. But, as previously stated, mother is not an indication of spoilage.
The simple fact is vinegar can last hundreds of years, barrels being passed down from one generation to the next.
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That it had a limited life would be a great disappointment to the producers of balsamic vinegar and quite a few chefs. Vinegar, due to its acidity, is self-preserving.