Michael Harlan Turkell talks about vinegar with the fervour of a sommelier. A honey variety has “autumnal notes, a scent of mellow leaves, a hint of mintiness”. A cider one is “beautiful, golden and complex”.
So what does a New York vinegar connoisseur think of Brits who splash Sarson’s on their seaside scampi and chips? “I do love fish and chips,” he says. “And Sarson’s has a cute bottle. But do seek out a real one to see how different they really are.”
His book Acid Trip (Abrams £22) is a love letter to vinegars around the world. As cooks, we are contrary: we obsess about the virginity of our olive oil, then slosh any old acid in with it. Harlan Turkell wants to wean us off mass-produced varieties “made out of bad ethanol” with very little flavour, “a sensation of acidity” and “mouth burn”.
In Vienna, he met Erwin Gegenbauer, a Willy Wonka figure who makes vinegars from cucumbers, asparagus, quince sap and golden delicious apples. (The Gegenbauer website ships internationally and I’ve just ordered a saffron vinegar.)
In Japan, he tried akasu, made from sake lees — the solids left over from the sake rice wine brewing process — and benimosu, a purple-potato vinegar that, he says, was “mellow and sweet and striking and bonkers”. The benimosu came poured over vanilla ice cream. “It blew my mind.”
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He predicts that vinegar with pudding is the coming thing. Not just familiar strawberries and balsamic, but peaches and plums with champagne vinegar, and raspberries with red wine vinegar. Raspberry vinegar (try A L’Olivier’s Framboise, £6.49 for 100ml, from Waitrose) turns custard a pleasing shade of pink.
You can make your own, but it’s not simple. Acid Trip has a 12-page step-by-step guide. Alternatively, try a local one: blackberry, cardamom and chilli vinegar from Suzanne’s Vinegars in Devon; lemon, basil, bay and juniper vinegar from Womersley in Oxfordshire; and Artisan Malt Vinegar, which is made in small batches in a former RAF bunker in Cornwall.
Harlan Turkell is planning his next round-the-world acid trip: to Jerez, in Spain, for sherry vinegar; to the Philippines for cane and coconut vinegars; and to Mexico for pineapple and “sticky, sappy” banana vinegar. My happiest experiment so far has been gooseberry sorbet with raspberry vinegar. Ecstatically tart — and the colours are pure summer.
Four to try
Tognan Erik pure apple cider vinegar
£3.10 for 500ml, artimondo.co.uk
Roditis white balsamic vinegar with honey
£5 for 250ml, oliveology.co.uk
Oochi yuzu and honey vinegar
£14 for 270ml, souschef.co.uk
Trevilley Farm Artisan Malt Vinegar
£3.75 for 250ml, trevilleyfarm.com