Just cleaned out a cupboard and I have 11 different kinds of vinegar- seriously, does anyone really

This is interesting actually. I have been talking about this lately. The oil and vinegar collection

is nearing ridiculous proportion here. I have now decided that I want to have in my next kitchen, and behind glass doors ... a cooled cupboard. It would have to be gently refrigerated as these oils would never last here in the summer.

If I get my wish for a new kitchen (in my next house) we may have to design the equipment for it. I'm not certain that it exists.

I buy oils and vinegars when I go abroad. I always take a bag for wine bottles and slip the oils and vinegars in with the wines, hand-carried. The customs people never believe me but it gets a good smile when I show them. (We have such restrictions on importing alcohol here, but not oils & vinegars). And this is at least an annual trip to France.

I probably have 15 different oils and at least that in vinegars. I keep them all down in the wine cellar but that just isn't inspiring when I am considering the evening meal.

If only buying and storing the ingredients were the single precursor to being a heavenly cook.

 
I'm so glad it's not just me! Personally, someday I'm truly planning to visit the vinegar museum in

Rosyln, South Dakota. That one has ROAD TRIP written all over it.

I have 18 different bottle of vinegar in my pantry right now. I love the vinegars made by "O" (I think their zinfadel red wine vinegar is good enough to eat straight and by the spoonful) and I recently opened a really great walnut champagne vinegar by Sparrow Lane that I got for Christmas. It's GREAT for a salad with gorgonzola, pecans and dried cranberries.

Hubby's as obsessive about salt as I am vinegar. He's got a good collection of that going. I love finding new salts to give him for presents.

 
My fav right now is an Orange Muscat one from Trader Joe's, I like to mix it

with cranberry or pomegranate juice and mineral water. Yum!

 
I began by thinking that was a way number of vinegars when I realized I had, without even trying, ..

seven.-red and white wine, raspberry, plain white, apple cider, rice, and a flavored kind which was a gift. I guess it's not hard to accumulate.

 
Red & White wine, apple cider, distilled white, industrial balsamic, 25 yr old balsamic...

Sherry, malt, Seasoned and Unseasoned Rice Wine, Fig, Champagne, Blood Orange, Tarragon.

 
I only have six, the white, the red, raspberry, apple, balsamico and sherry (more)

-and I still haven't found a really good purpose for the sherry vinegar yet.

I don't even remember why I bought it.
How do you use it?

 
Here's one of my favorites. Rec:Grilled Potato Salad with Watercress, Green Onions and Blue Cheese V

Grilled Potato Salad with Watercress, Green Onions and Blue Cheese Vinaigrette
Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 18 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

12 red new potatoes, skin on, par boiled, sliced 1/4-inch thick
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup aged sherry wine vinegar
1 small shallot, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 pound watercress, coarsely chopped
2 green onion, coarsely sliced
1/2 cup crumbled Cabrales blue cheese
Grilled Quail, recipe follows

Heat grill. Toss potatoes with oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Grill until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes. Combine the vinegar, shallot, mustard and oil. Toss the potatoes in the vinaigrette. Using tongs remove potatoes from the vinaigrette. Toss the watercress and onion in the remaining vinaigrette. Place the potatoes onto the platter and top with blue cheese. Arrange the quail and watercress on top.

Grilled Black and White Pepper Quail:
3 tablespoons ground white pepper
3 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 quail, de-boned

Combine both peppers and salt in a small bowl. Brush quail with oil on both sides and season with the pepper mixture on skin side. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_23392_PRINT-RECIPE-FULL-PAGE,00.html

 
Hi Pat. Cuisine Perel has a line of very good vinegars, including blood orange.

I haven't tried the blood orange, yet, but have a bottle in the cupboard. Their vinegars and oils are very intensely flavored, and I've loved all the ones I've tried. I've used the Tequila Lime on salads. Their walnut oil is great on Joe's orange avocado salad. Oh, and lemon oil for fish.

They have a website with recipes for their products:

www.cuisineperel.com

 
Patti, I found the blood orange olive oil at TJ Maxx.... It comes in

a skinny, 200 ml bottle, labeled in an orange & white, horizontally striped label, with a grey
"O" in the top white space. It is delicious. They also make a lemon one, but, since I'm still working on a bottle, I passed it by.

 
It is a lot, yep. But I'd don't have that many because I'm a foodie...

or anything. It's because vinegar's "my thang." I'm not nearly as obsessive about collecting other types of food stuff.

What's wierd is I don't make it myself. You'd think I'd be into that too. But I usually decide it's way too much work to tackle! I'm in awe of people who do it regularly.

 
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