Vinegar

Vinegar is a sharp-smelling solution of acetic acid in water, usually 4 to 18 per cent acid by volume, carrying traces of flavour from whatever it was made from. Most is made by two fermentations: yeast turns sugars into alcohol, then acetic acid bacteria, whose role Louis Pasteur discovered, turn the alcohol into acid. The name came into English through Old French from Latin words for sour wine, and it was once also called eisel. The Babylonians made it from fruit, dates, figs and beer by about 3000 BCE, for both cooking and medicine; noble households of China's Zhou dynasty kept a vinegar maker, and Greeks and Romans used vinegar made from wine. Its varieties follow their source: cider, wine, sherry and balsamic vinegars, rice and Chinese black vinegars, coconut and cane vinegars, and the colourless distilled or spirit vinegar, made by fermenting distilled alcohol. Today it serves mainly as a sour seasoning, dressing and pickling liquid, and also as a household cleaner and weedkiller. Folk medicine has used it since antiquity, though clinical research gives no firm support to claims such as weight loss. In the witch bottle, a charm against witchcraft known in England and the United States, vinegar is one of the things some bottles have held, along with salt, herbs, oil and coins.