Speaker 1: We're going to start with Technique of the Week, and
Speaker 1: I don't know that we've done this. If we have,
Speaker 1: it's been a long time. I'm sure we've touched on
Speaker 1: vinegar before, but I want to get into vinegar a
Speaker 1: little more of a deep dive. So I thought it
Speaker 1: would be a great start to the program today with
Speaker 1: Technique of the Week. There's a book. If you don't
Speaker 1: have it, I would highly recommend it came out and
Speaker 1: I don't know twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, something like that.
Speaker 1: Some in Nosrat, I think is how you pronounce her
Speaker 1: name wrote a brilliant book breaking down cooking into four
Speaker 1: essentials salt, fat, acid, heat. That's actually the name of
Speaker 1: the book, And really these are things. The salt is
Speaker 1: a salt is a taste, but it also has a
Speaker 1: chemical reaction to it as well. But salt is the
Speaker 1: only thing salty on Earth. I know, right, sounds like well,
Speaker 1: of course it would be, but keep in mind it
Speaker 1: is one of your tastes, salt, and it can only
Speaker 1: come from salt. For instance, fat comes from many different places.
Speaker 1: Acid can come from different places as well, and there's
Speaker 1: different types of heat. But salt is salt. Is salt.
Speaker 1: But I love this book because it breaks down the
Speaker 1: fundamentals of cooking in a beautiful, beautiful way. And I'll
Speaker 1: use some analogies when I can think of it this way,
Speaker 1: because I work with photography and I work with graphics
Speaker 1: and have for many, many years, and one of the
Speaker 1: things that you use in good photography is contrast. Now,
Speaker 1: any illustration or design is going to use contrast. You
Speaker 1: want depth, you want focus, you want lights and dark
Speaker 1: and all of these things. And strangely enough, that's the
Speaker 1: same thing you want in cooking. And acid is one
Speaker 1: of those things that's gonna bring out. It's going to
Speaker 1: brighten food. It's gonna cause contrast. When something looks kind
Speaker 1: of hazy. I know it's kind of a hazy day today,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to burn off. Of course, this is the
Speaker 1: first official full day of summer. And there's something when
Speaker 1: it's gray or there's no real shadows, everything kind of
Speaker 1: looks bland out right. Well, imagine when the sun comes
Speaker 1: out and you have very striking or harsh shadows. It
Speaker 1: also doesn't only create that contrast of dark and light.
Speaker 1: But notice that once the gray burns off today, that
Speaker 1: you're going to see more vibrancy in the colors those
Speaker 1: red umbrellas you have in the backyard, or the blues
Speaker 1: of a of a T shirt or dress or whatever,
Speaker 1: they're gonna become more vibrant. That's kind of what acid
Speaker 1: does as well. It's like the sun shining on things.
Speaker 1: It just makes something flat become bright and wonderful. There
Speaker 1: have been times where I would make something, you know,
Speaker 1: like a vegetable dish or something, or maybe a stew,
Speaker 1: and I taste it, and the salt the seasoning tastes right,
Speaker 1: and everything kind of tastes right. But to me, it's
Speaker 1: like bland. You know, it just is bland. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I think I'm gonna pop some
Speaker 1: acid in there. And acid comes from vinegar. Acid can come
Speaker 1: from citrus, Acid can come naturally in things like tomatoes
Speaker 1: and the like. But this I need a pop. I'll
Speaker 1: reach for vinegar. And each vinegar has a flavor base
Speaker 1: and differences about it that create another level to your palate.
Speaker 1: And so yes, it can brighten, it can create contrast,
Speaker 1: but it balances things out. Salt makes things taste more
Speaker 1: like themselves. Shouldn't be salty. Salt should awaken your taste
Speaker 1: but buds to taste whatever your you know enjoying. So
Speaker 1: if it's meat, that meat should taste more lammy if
Speaker 1: it's lamb, more beefy, if it's beef, more poultry e
Speaker 1: if it's poultry. Acid is going to balance those flavors out.
Speaker 1: The harmony is like a filter that brings everything together,
Speaker 1: makes them all sound like themselves, but in a symphony
Speaker 1: of flavor that they kind of have their individuality but
Speaker 1: doing it altogether. So the most versatile sources of acid
Speaker 1: gonna be vinegar. Like I said about things like tomatoes
Speaker 1: or citrus, They're going to add other things to the
Speaker 1: base as well that maybe you don't want. But vinegar
Speaker 1: you can find in different notes and different variants, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna come together. It's very available to those of
Speaker 1: us who are home cooks, and some are a little
Speaker 1: more rare than others, but they all have their own
Speaker 1: flavors and uses if you can ever find them. One
Speaker 1: of the best places to do it, and I know
Speaker 1: are beloved. Bomb Fass that was out there in Claremont
Speaker 1: is no longer there, but the Ventura San Diego you
Speaker 1: can still find them. Go and taste to a tasting
Speaker 1: of vinegars and you'll be surprised that different types of
Speaker 1: flavors that each one can bring. And there's many others.
Speaker 1: You look around town. We have a lot of great
Speaker 1: olive oil and vinegar places throughout the south Land, and
Speaker 1: you kind of have to know the taste of these
Speaker 1: things to be able to choose the right vinegar for
Speaker 1: you know, whether you're going to pickle something, whether you're
Speaker 1: going to do a pan sauce or a reduction of
Speaker 1: some kind. So the key there is to be able
Speaker 1: to understand the notes and what each will bring. Now,
Speaker 1: to make vinegar, you only need a few things. It's
Speaker 1: very basic. You need alcohol, you need heat, you need oxygen,
Speaker 1: and you put these things together. And in that too,
Speaker 1: you're going to add a natural bacteria that kind of
Speaker 1: converts the alcohol to acid in the first place. So
Speaker 1: vinegar traditionally made from alcoholic beverages, and these are things
Speaker 1: that we drink, whether it's a hard sider, a sake,
Speaker 1: a wine, a beer, these are the things that vinegars
Speaker 1: are going to be made out of. If you've ever
Speaker 1: you know, left the bottle of red wine out or
Speaker 1: something like that begins to sour, it's basically on its
Speaker 1: way to becoming vinegar. Not a good vinegar, but a
Speaker 1: vinegar all right. So American vinegar is, you know, just
Speaker 1: like any other place. You can get a varieties of them.
Speaker 1: You can find your white distilled vinegar. These things like
Speaker 1: white distilled vinegar I used to clean things as well
Speaker 1: as to brighten up food. It's kind of the acidity
Speaker 1: in it is at a place where you can use
Speaker 1: it to clean and get like tarnish off or god,
Speaker 1: what am I thinking of? Oh, you know, on your
Speaker 1: sink or something. If you have mineral build up on
Speaker 1: your faucet or something like that, you can use distilled vinegar.
Speaker 1: Some vinegars might say diluted. Other things in there could
Speaker 1: be manufactured for distributed Buy these things doesn't mean they're
Speaker 1: bad products. It just means that the brand you're buying
Speaker 1: from probably didn't make it themselves. They're taking different parts
Speaker 1: of the vinegar and putting them together. If if you're
Speaker 1: looking for different types of vinegars, there's about ten basic categories,
Speaker 1: and the first one is the one that you probably
Speaker 1: have in your pantry right now, and that's white vinegar
Speaker 1: or distilled vinegar. Very simple variety. It's always almost always
Speaker 1: made industrially. It's made from distilled alcohol, and generally you
Speaker 1: take super high proof neutral alcohol, and this is an
Speaker 1: alcohol that hasn't you know, hasn't spent time in a
Speaker 1: barrel or anything like that to bring up any of
Speaker 1: its flavor using industrial fermentation methods, and it turns into
Speaker 1: a high ascid in vinegar, which then you dilute down
Speaker 1: and you probably bring it down to normally somewhere around
Speaker 1: five percent acidity. And the value to all this, I guess,
Speaker 1: is that it's made with neutral spirits, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: have any flavor per se that's going to affect your dish.
Speaker 1: So stilled vinegar can be used in tons of different ways.
Speaker 1: Can make cakes lighter, believe it or not, helping set
Speaker 1: whites in poached eggs. It's one of those things that
Speaker 1: you heard. You put that in the boiling water and
Speaker 1: it helps kind of firm up the albumin the whites
Speaker 1: of the eggs. Very reliable thing that you can use
Speaker 1: canned pickles, super affordable. You can buy it in large containers,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't affect the color of the vegetable, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's just clear. It's safe for care. All these
Speaker 1: things make it kind of this household bright crisp neutral.
Speaker 1: People use it for pickled eggs, Jimmy churry, raspberry vinegrat,
Speaker 1: these types of things. Technique of the week talking about vinegars,
Speaker 1: this acid, this wonderful thing acid that brightens and causes
Speaker 1: contrast in your dish. And what a great day to
Speaker 1: talk about it when it's hazy out, because go look
Speaker 1: outside the lack of contrast. How everything's kind of one note,
Speaker 1: even bright colors are a little flat. Well, that's the
Speaker 1: type of thing. When you taste a dish and it
Speaker 1: tastes like that, that is exactly when you need to
Speaker 1: brighten it up with vinegar with an acid to give
Speaker 1: it that extra pop that just separates every single note
Speaker 1: into something more beautiful. We talked about your basic vinegar
Speaker 1: that you have, your white vinegar, your distilled vinegar that
Speaker 1: you have. I guarantee you use it for cleaning and
Speaker 1: also for cooking. The next we were just starting to
Speaker 1: talk about apple cider vinegar. It's made traditionally from a
Speaker 1: hard cider alcoholic cider. It offers an acidity from five
Speaker 1: to six percent, still in the same or similar range
Speaker 1: as the white or distilled but it does have this
Speaker 1: apple forward, fruity taste, and that adds just a wonderful
Speaker 1: pack to what they call quick pickling or quick pickles,
Speaker 1: salad dressing, for marinades, these types of things. It works out.
Speaker 1: It's also very good for just giving that extra punch.
Speaker 1: But unlike the the distilled vinegar that is neutral, it
Speaker 1: just did I don't know, vinegary taste. You can add,
Speaker 1: you know, mix apple cider, vinegar, ginger water, something sweet
Speaker 1: like you know, maple syrup or molasses, and some people
Speaker 1: would use that to drink. There are actually drinking vinegars
Speaker 1: out there that I used to drink vinegar. There were
Speaker 1: some great Again, you have to find a store that
Speaker 1: has them in stock. I mean, some people drink at
Speaker 1: apple cider vinegar, but that's slightly different than something that
Speaker 1: has been created for drinking. And again back in the
Speaker 1: days when we had our partners, sponsors and friends there
Speaker 1: at vom Foss and Claremont, they have so many that
Speaker 1: are worthy of drinking on their own. And of course
Speaker 1: you could still find Vomvass in Ventura and in San
Speaker 1: Diego and the like, and they were friends of our
Speaker 1: friend there and Kim in Claremont. So you know that
Speaker 1: they're good people as well, but you can do tastings
Speaker 1: of their vinegars and they're just fantastic. So it depends
Speaker 1: what you're doing with it. Again, the acidity can go
Speaker 1: up to six percent, a little bit more than your
Speaker 1: distilled vinegar. And then there's rice vinegar. I love rice vinegar. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this is used in Asian food, and it just there
Speaker 1: is a sort of sweetness about it and something that
Speaker 1: is distinctive to me that just makes a dish pop.
Speaker 1: So obviously made traditionally from rice wine or suck, rice
Speaker 1: vinegar is the least acidic. So we've talked about five percent,
Speaker 1: talk about six percent. This goes about four to five percent.
Speaker 1: It's mild, it's got a mommy ness, a savoriness to it,
Speaker 1: but it is just lovely hot noor sour sauce goes
Speaker 1: well with and it just is I just there's something
Speaker 1: about that flavor to me that just works really well.
Speaker 1: I like it with carrots, like it with a bunch
Speaker 1: of things. Sherry vinegar. So if you know on the
Speaker 1: sense of rice vinegar you look at it as being
Speaker 1: more mildly acidic, then sherry vinegar is made from fortified wine.
Speaker 1: And it's on the other end of the spectrum, so
Speaker 1: it's going from about six to eight percent acid. So
Speaker 1: this is when you're going to put it towards tenderizing meat,
Speaker 1: red meat, it's going to do a great job. Keep
Speaker 1: in mind, it is a dark vinegar, so if you
Speaker 1: did use it on poultry or fish or something like that,
Speaker 1: it's definitely going to transfer that color there, which may
Speaker 1: or may not be appetizing, has a little bit of
Speaker 1: non to it, but can be really wonderful and can
Speaker 1: brighten up all kinds of dishes. There. Okay, there's some
Speaker 1: more that I want to get into as well, so
Speaker 1: stick around and we'll continue talking about technique of the week.
Speaker 1: And this technique is really kind of breaking down the
Speaker 1: acid we find in vinegar. It's just a lovely ingredient
Speaker 1: that a lot of us home cooks. Well, I'll speak
Speaker 1: for myself. Took me a while and continues to take
Speaker 1: me a while to really understand. It's like seasoning or
Speaker 1: anything else. It really is trial and error and understanding
Speaker 1: when you need that acid maybe to cut through some
Speaker 1: of the fattiness, or to separate flavors, brighten flavors, or
Speaker 1: just elevate a dish and you'd be surprised. A tiny
Speaker 1: little capful and a big pot of something can really
Speaker 1: cause separation and contrast that will make the dish go pow. Vinegar.
Speaker 1: I'm extending this because vinegar is one of those things
Speaker 1: that is imperative to good home cooking, good cooking period
Speaker 1: and so for Technique of the Week, I thought i'd
Speaker 1: go through these, going through the ten, the ten big
Speaker 1: ones that you need to know about and that you
Speaker 1: can use. Acidity is important to the way it brightens flavor,
Speaker 1: causes contrast, and adds It adds that jouje when something
Speaker 1: just seems flat, and what a day to talk about
Speaker 1: it with it being a hazy June day. You look
Speaker 1: out and that's kind of like in photography or the
Speaker 1: way we see things and how they can kind of
Speaker 1: look flat. You don't have shadows, and sometimes that's what
Speaker 1: you want when you're taking doing photography, but in a
Speaker 1: case like this, there's no vibrancy to the colors and
Speaker 1: things like that. Well, that's kind of what acid brings
Speaker 1: to it is like what light brings to photography. Brighten
Speaker 1: things up, causes contrast, and that's what we need in
Speaker 1: our food. Sometimes so white wine vinegar vinegars that you know,
Speaker 1: wine vinegars tend to be kind of the middle of
Speaker 1: the road when it comes to the acidity, so they
Speaker 1: kind of stay around that five percent mark, right, and
Speaker 1: that makes them versatile. That makes them have a lot
Speaker 1: of play in what you can do with them and
Speaker 1: how you use them. I have fortified wines like Lily
Speaker 1: Blanc that I will use in cocktails, and fortified wines
Speaker 1: obviously go back into the refrigerator once they're opened. You
Speaker 1: don't leave them out, and they do go bad, whereas
Speaker 1: a vinegar is going to have higher acid and it's
Speaker 1: going to stay more stable for longer periods time. But
Speaker 1: I'll do that when I'm doing a dish and vegetables
Speaker 1: and I'm like there's just something lacking. I'll take a
Speaker 1: fortified wine like LeBlanc and that I use for mixing
Speaker 1: a cocktail or something and all just pour a little
Speaker 1: bit of that in there. But when you want the
Speaker 1: super versatility of something in the middle row the wine vinegars,
Speaker 1: in this case, white wine vinegar ends up being really great.
Speaker 1: It's easily found at the grocery store, but you can find,
Speaker 1: you know, different varieties as well. You can find a
Speaker 1: chardonnay looking at looking at you, farren a Pino, You've
Speaker 1: got champagne, other grapes, regions, whatever, They're going to add
Speaker 1: their own flavors and that are going to add to
Speaker 1: the acidity as well. So it depends on what you're cooking,
Speaker 1: but you can use champagne vinegar as a base ingredient
Speaker 1: in a barbecue marinade, believe it or not, an adobo,
Speaker 1: things like that. Many chefs in an article I was
Speaker 1: reading or breaking down these different styles of the use
Speaker 1: of vinegars and when they use them, and it really
Speaker 1: it really goes to show you how we're still these
Speaker 1: things are having these Food and Wine did a wonderful
Speaker 1: breakdown on vinegars, which is where I was pulling a
Speaker 1: lot of information from just great, great content. A white
Speaker 1: vinegar is good for chicken breast, Like I said, the
Speaker 1: color of the vinegar could change the color of the
Speaker 1: meat depending on how you're using it. And sometimes a
Speaker 1: red wine might look great with the chicken that you're doing,
Speaker 1: and it causes this richness and this great color to it. However,
Speaker 1: sometimes it may cause a color that is unfavorable because
Speaker 1: it just looks muddied or grayish or something like that.
Speaker 1: So when you're using it in poultry or fish, the
Speaker 1: white is light, so it adds. It's not as jar
Speaker 1: on an off putting as it can be. Acidity, Like
Speaker 1: I said, about five percent mild balanced. You can use
Speaker 1: it for all kinds of things, candy, bacon, wedge, salad.
Speaker 1: Red wine vinegar is going to play in that similar
Speaker 1: pool generic blended versions of highly specific specific wine red wine.
Speaker 1: Like you can get a cab or you can get
Speaker 1: a Pinot noir or something like that, and it makes
Speaker 1: its red wine vinegar, you know, sit in that same
Speaker 1: category about five percent acidity. You can get a California Surrah.
Speaker 1: All these different things are going to bring slightly different
Speaker 1: flavors to the table, but the acid is still going
Speaker 1: to be doing what it's doing. Some people even use
Speaker 1: red wine vinegar as a bitter or something in their cocktails.
Speaker 1: It could be as high as seven percent, but it's
Speaker 1: you floating around the five percent range. Tangy sometimes fruity
Speaker 1: can add a lot to it. Now one that I
Speaker 1: love because this can fall into sweet and savory depending
Speaker 1: on its thickness and flavorings and things like that. But
Speaker 1: a balsamic vinegar. And I know there's many of you,
Speaker 1: and I've heard from you before that you do not
Speaker 1: like balsamic vinegar. I absolutely adore it, and I keep
Speaker 1: a number of different types here. A maletti is one
Speaker 1: of the ones that I absolutely love, and again that
Speaker 1: came from our friends at voon Fass, and to me,
Speaker 1: it is gold. It is absolute liquid gold. I put
Speaker 1: it on top of, you know, if I'm making an
Speaker 1: avocado toast or something, or you can even put it
Speaker 1: on top of vanilla ice cream. It's so sweet and
Speaker 1: lovely up against that, so it's deep, it's rich. I'll
Speaker 1: use it to do reductions, all of great things. It
Speaker 1: really has to do with the percentages of sugars over
Speaker 1: the alcohol. That's what kind of breaks it down. They
Speaker 1: just really cook it down and concentrate those sugars and
Speaker 1: it just gives it that sweetness to it. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: aged in barrels, or it's always aged in barrels, but
Speaker 1: sometimes it's aged for much longer, but it's got to
Speaker 1: have a minimum of twelve years and just the flavors
Speaker 1: of it in a gosh. I love it with red meat.
Speaker 1: I love it on salads. There's so much that you
Speaker 1: can do with it, and it really is one of
Speaker 1: those wonderful, wonderful things. Kind of an extended technique of
Speaker 1: the week as we're talking about the ten top vinegar types.
Speaker 1: Vinegar is incredibly important to cooking and separating flavor, brightening
Speaker 1: things up, causing contrast, and it is a wonderful thing. Indeed,
Speaker 1: we're moving on from balsamic vinegar, which I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people have different opinions about. I really love it.
Speaker 1: The sweetness, a bit of tangyness, tends to be pretty rich.
Speaker 1: I think it goes great on pork chops and the
Speaker 1: light I like to put it. I like to grill
Speaker 1: watermelon during the summer and a little salt and pepper
Speaker 1: on there, and you can grill it and then you
Speaker 1: just rizzle a nice high end balsamic vinegar on that.
Speaker 1: Get it with a fork, You're welcome. Malt vinegar. Malt
Speaker 1: vinegar is made traditionally with beer and it can be
Speaker 1: slightly sweet. It's kind of toasty, little nutty typically or
Speaker 1: just medium plus let's say, with acidity going five percent
Speaker 1: six percent. And there are two types, well, there's many
Speaker 1: types out there, but some make them from IPA one
Speaker 1: from a porter style beer, and they can be you know,
Speaker 1: made from an industrial malt mash, and those things aren't
Speaker 1: made for eating, but you can process the vinegar and
Speaker 1: make them a wonderful treat for you. Subtle in flavor,
Speaker 1: maybe not something you'd want to drink, but as it
Speaker 1: is used it gets a little sweet. It can be
Speaker 1: complex depending people will use it on a beer battered fish.
Speaker 1: That malt vinegar a only things like that, maybe a
Speaker 1: spicy beer mustard, and then that moves us to black vinegar.
Speaker 1: Black vinegar is you is put into creation by way
Speaker 1: of fermentation, just like the other vinegars, but it's fermenting
Speaker 1: whole grains, so you're using barley or sticky rice or
Speaker 1: things like that. Very umami, and it just has this
Speaker 1: pretty intense flavor, multi rich and very flavorful. So you
Speaker 1: can do it. Use it as a dipping sauce for
Speaker 1: dumplings and the like. It originated in China, works very
Speaker 1: good with Asian cuisines, whether it's Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, works
Speaker 1: very very well. Honey vinegar, now this is maybe something
Speaker 1: that might be harder to get depending on where you are.
Speaker 1: It's made from mead and this honey vinegar is you know,
Speaker 1: it's not everywhere. It depends where you're shopping, but it
Speaker 1: has a similar process than the other vinegar or things
Speaker 1: like that. You ferment it slowly let age. In this
Speaker 1: case it's whiskey barrels. It mellows out the vinegar. Use
Speaker 1: honey vinegar like you would a white balsamic, so it's
Speaker 1: naturally sweet, brighten up buttercream, ad tan to fruit cobbler,
Speaker 1: caramelized onion jam, kind of jug it up and kick
Speaker 1: it up a notch. And it's from low to mid,
Speaker 1: so it goes between like four and five percent acidity,
Speaker 1: very sweet, floral. You can use it in a braised chicken,
Speaker 1: that type of things. So this breaks down the most
Speaker 1: basic kind of varieties of vinegar. But again, think about
Speaker 1: the whole dish, the contrast, the taking us back to
Speaker 1: the concept of photography or art or design and how
Speaker 1: if something is monotonous and it seems flat and there's
Speaker 1: no contrast or no depth or these types of things
Speaker 1: that often when you find that in a dish, that
Speaker 1: often is the lack of acidity. You're missing something to
Speaker 1: cause a vibrancy to the dulness of a dish and
Speaker 1: you could have done everything else right. The fat and
Speaker 1: air is perfect, the heat, the temp that you're cooking
Speaker 1: is perfect. All of those things come together well. But
Speaker 1: what you're missing is going to be the lovely, separating
Speaker 1: and dynamic ingredient of acid. That acid can come from
Speaker 1: different places. Even buttermilk has acid in it. That's what
Speaker 1: causes That's what causes it to become acidic and to
Speaker 1: get that tanginess that it gets in buttermilk, and you
Speaker 1: can use That's why many people when they're making a
Speaker 1: fried chicken will let it marinade overnight in buttermilk because
Speaker 1: of that acidity. So it has functional properties like chemical reactions,
Speaker 1: but also the way it dances on your tongue or
Speaker 1: wakes up your taste buds in a way for you
Speaker 1: to be able to taste the different things in a
Speaker 1: dish in a way that brightens them and causes that contrast.
Speaker 1: So it's one of those ingredients that I think many
Speaker 1: of us will you know, make mistakes with or tend
Speaker 1: not to put in a dish properly, or you know,
Speaker 1: leave it out. We're afraid that it's going to mess
Speaker 1: the dish up. Well, like any ingredient. You can mess
Speaker 1: a dish up by putting far too much of it
Speaker 1: in there. But the reality is, just like salt or
Speaker 1: any other seasoning or fat, that you're going to have
Speaker 1: to learn the proportions to be able to utilize it
Speaker 1: in a way that makes everything wonderful and delicious. That's
Speaker 1: the key of cooking, right. Controlling liquid, controlling temperature, all
Speaker 1: these things are part of the experience of making a
Speaker 1: dish at home, and so in this particular case, it's
Speaker 1: the acid to focus on. And so I hope that
Speaker 1: you take some of these ideas, and if you didn't
Speaker 1: get to hear the whole thing, you can go back
Speaker 1: and listen to the podcast. Of course, okay if I
Speaker 1: aim six forty dot com. But play around with it.
Speaker 1: Even if you set aside a bowl of something, if
Speaker 1: you're cooking, you don't want to do it in the
Speaker 1: whole bowl. You want to set it aside. Just keep
Speaker 1: in mind that a little goes a long way when
Speaker 1: it comes to acid, and the way it wakes up
Speaker 1: a dish is always it always surprises me how just
Speaker 1: a tiny little bit of in this case, vinegar or
Speaker 1: something will brighten up a dish. A vegetable dish or
Speaker 1: something and make it taste cleaner and brighter. I hope
Speaker 1: that that helps and gets you focused on trying something
Speaker 1: new if you are not comfortable with it. So Gary
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas was commenting on the vinegar segment. I
Speaker 1: appreciate your kind words, Gary, but saying that he loves
Speaker 1: bolsamic vinegar and he had issues with ratios. And here's
Speaker 1: the thing with ratios. It is been said, there's entire
Speaker 1: books on this about ratios and breaking down cooking into ratios.
Speaker 1: So whenever you see like a competition show and they
Speaker 1: make a cookie out of the blue with the ingredients,
Speaker 1: that's because there is a ratio of baking for cookies,
Speaker 1: which I think is one two three. So it deals
Speaker 1: with the fat, deals with fat, flour, sugar, that type
Speaker 1: of thing. The easiest way to explain this is a
Speaker 1: pound cake. The recipe for a pound cake was originally
Speaker 1: one to one to one to one. I mean it's
Speaker 1: one pound flour, one pound butter, one pound sugar. And
Speaker 1: that's what a pound was. Now when it comes to vinigrettes,
Speaker 1: which is what Gary in Las Vegas was asking about
Speaker 1: or mentioning, saying, hey, please talk about this. The standard
Speaker 1: ratio for a balanced but slightly acidic vinegrete typically is
Speaker 1: three to one, so that is three parts oil. In
Speaker 1: most cases, you're probably gonna use an olive oil, So
Speaker 1: three parts olive oil to one part balsamic. Now that's
Speaker 1: the standard. However, you can change the ratio to whatever
Speaker 1: you like. If you want to be sharper, if you
Speaker 1: want it to be tang tang geer. That's a weird
Speaker 1: word to say, more tangy. Let's go with that. With
Speaker 1: your vinigrette, then you just use more vinegar. Some people
Speaker 1: will do two to one, or if you really really
Speaker 1: love the flavor of balsamic vinegar or whatever vinegar you're using,
Speaker 1: you can use one to one. So then if you
Speaker 1: went up four to one with the oil, it's going
Speaker 1: to be more mild, it's going to be richer because
Speaker 1: you've got more of that fat, more of that oil
Speaker 1: in there. That is just something, you know. It depends
Speaker 1: what you can do. You can also add other things.
Speaker 1: You can add a little bit of mustard to a
Speaker 1: multify the dressing. That helps combine that oil and vinegar.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a middle ground between those two things
Speaker 1: and brings them together. Some people will add maple syrup
Speaker 1: or honey, a little bit of salt and pepper. Some
Speaker 1: people even add a little bit of water to the
Speaker 1: thin out and wipen up the vinegrette. But standard practice
Speaker 1: is a vinigrette. A vinegrette is three to one. But
Speaker 1: just like a martini or anything else, some people have
Speaker 1: the ratios that they like specifically, and they will call
Speaker 1: upon them depending on their taste buds. I personally uh
Speaker 1: with a vinigrette with a balsamic vinaigrette. I really enjoy
Speaker 1: the flavor of balsamic vinegar, so I don't mind if
Speaker 1: you lean on it when it comes to the ratio
Speaker 1: in favor of the balsamic, just because I think that
Speaker 1: the flavor is outstanding. The oil is a nice way
Speaker 1: of breaking breaking it up, giving it a little heft,
Speaker 1: adding a little fatness stick to your rib goodness, which
Speaker 1: for me can be something really wonderful because they're in
Speaker 1: a salad. You already have so much vibrancy, you know, herbs, lettuce,
Speaker 1: these types of things that bring out those natural flavors
Speaker 1: that sometimes a little more viscous and fatty addition to
Speaker 1: it makes it taste a little more or feel a
Speaker 1: little bit more substantial to me, and I like that personally,
Speaker 1: But that is really going to come to your your
Speaker 1: flavor what you like flavor wise too, So keep in
Speaker 1: mind ratios, balance acid. There's going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are going to tell you not the
Speaker 1: right way, but the typical way to use something. Now,
Speaker 1: unless there's a chemical reaction or something that is going
Speaker 1: to destroy you know how certain ingredients react to each other,
Speaker 1: then there's really not a wrong way, and there are
Speaker 1: things that you can do if it comes to flavor.
Speaker 1: It's like kind of like art. If your taste buds
Speaker 1: like that, then go for it. I mean, when a
Speaker 1: banana duct tape to a wall can sell as art,
Speaker 1: then I think you can add more balslamic vinegar if
Speaker 1: you want to your vinaigrette, if that's your jam. But
Speaker 1: it depends again on your how you taste things, what
Speaker 1: your taste buds are like to you, and if you're
Speaker 1: looking for the richness side of things versus the tangy
Speaker 1: side of things. I'm often fascinated by things that people
Speaker 1: like or don't like. You know, I tease my son
Speaker 1: all the time, Can you be my son? You don't
Speaker 1: like that. You know, he's not crazy on a lot
Speaker 1: of cheese. Who the hell's not crazy about cheese? Right?
Speaker 1: Who don't want Who says, oh, less cheese please? Nobody? Well,
Speaker 1: my son doesn't always like a lot of don't like
Speaker 1: a lot of melted cheese or tons of cheese on things.
Speaker 1: He also is very particular on the amount of butter
Speaker 1: that goes on his toast. You don't like it too buttery? Again,
Speaker 1: I asked the kid, How could you? What is too buttery?
Speaker 1: Nobody from the south saying, hey, there's not enough butter
Speaker 1: in this, Come on now. But whatever your taste buds
Speaker 1: are telling you is correct to you. Same with wine,
Speaker 1: same with anything. Something's too sweet, take down the sweetness.
Speaker 1: If something is you know, too tangy, tanks down the tanginess.
Speaker 1: You do it how you want. There is no across
Speaker 1: the board. The basic measurements and ratios are always for
Speaker 1: a balsamic, always going to be three to one, three
Speaker 1: parts oil to one part acid. That's just what you're
Speaker 1: going to start with. But how you break down those
Speaker 1: numbers and ratios and ingredients, well, that's really going to
Speaker 1: be to taste. And that's the best part about cooking
Speaker 1: at home. Right, you're your own chef. You can say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I like this a little more like this,
Speaker 1: or I like this a little bit more like that,
Speaker 1: and then you make that happen. That is the magic
Speaker 1: of cooking at home. And the best part about cooking
Speaker 1: at home is being able to cater to your tastes
Speaker 1: and your family's tastes in a way that makes things
Speaker 1: specific to you. Bespoke cooking in your own kitchen,