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What an acid trip year one of the USI Vinegar Vinegar Competition was! Thank you to all the international vinegar makers that submitted, and to our esteemed panel of judges for their professional palates and opinions. We hope to see even more vinegar next year, so keep a tab on entries for 2025, to come …

– Michael Harlan Turkell, VP of VinegarProfessor.com

Below is a list of the winners. Official posting here:

https://usivinegarcompetition.com/winners/2024-winners/

DOUBLE GOLD

Balsamic

La Vecchia Dispensa, Black Pearl Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP

VOM FASS, Wild Mango Balsamic Star

GOLD

Balsamic

Acetaia Malpighi, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena Gold

George Paul Vinegar, Emilia

Hudson Valley Vinegar, Double Balsamic Vinegar

La Vecchia Dispensa, Red Label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP

Fruit

La Villa vinaigres et jardins, Pleiades

Vinaigrerie Gingras, Apple Balsamic Vinegar

Infused

Rozendal, Fynbos Botanical Vinegar

Wine

George Paul Vinegar, Edelweiss

Gegenbauer, Edelsauren P.X. Noble Sour

SILVER

Balsamic

Acetaia Malpighi, Saporoso

Acetomodena, White Condiment – Black Garlic

Acetomodena, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena Oro IGP

Ponti, Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP

La Vecchia Dispensa, Bronze Label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP

Mazzetti, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena 5 Leaf Black Label

Neolea, 70/30 Balsamic Vinegar 250ml, 70/30 Balsamic Vinegar

Ponti, High Density Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP

VOM FASS, Apple Balsamic Vinegar

VOM FASS, Blueberry Balsamic Star

VOM FASS, Date Balsamic Star

Fruit

Gegenbauer, Haus Essig sube Quitte

George Paul Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar

George Paul Vinegar, Raspberry Vinegar

Vinaigrerie Gingras, Original Apple Cider Vinegar

Infused

Acetaia del Sole / Center for Discovery, Fennel Apple Cider Vinegar

Hudson Valley Vinegar, Fire Apple Vinegar

La Villa vinaigres et jardins, Minashkuat

Wine

George Paul Vinegar, Brianna

George Paul Vinegar, Prairie White

BRONZE

Infused

La Villa vinaigres et jardins, Rasemotte

La Villa vinaigres et jardins, Metis

Fruit

Vinaigrerie Gingras, 15 years old Apple Cider Vinegar

Pizca, Paradisiaca Vinegar

Wine

George Paul Vinegar, Prairie Red

INDIVIDUAL WINNERS

Austria

Vinegar Producer of the Year: Gegenbauer

Canada

Apple Cider Vinegar Producer of the Year: Au coeur de la pomme

Infused Vinegar Producer of the Year: La Villa vinaigres et jardins

Ecuador

Vinegar Producer of the Year: Pizca

Germany

Vinegar Producer of the Year: VOM FASS

Greece

Vinegar Producer of the Year: Neolea

Italy

Balsamic Vinegar of Modena Producer of the Year: La Vecchia Dispensa

South Africa

Vinegar Producer of the Year: Rozendal

US Individual Winners

Producer of the Year: George Paul Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar Producer of the Year: Acetaia Del Sole

Vinegar in Korean cuisine here and overseas.

Behold the vinegar wall at the Midwest’s world-renowned food mecca.

In the Philippines, there’s a local Tagalog word paksiw that categorizes any food that’s been cooked in vinegar. Everyone adores adobo, the country’s national dish is their most famous culinary export — chicken thighs, pork belly, or even mackerel filets are seared then simmered in vinegar, soy sauce with aromatics: garlic, black peppercorn and bay leaves — but there’s also the more daring dinuguan (a savory meat stew finished with pig’s blood). Lumpia, fan-favorite fried spring roll, utilizes vinegar in a dipping sauce, while balut (fully cooked fertilized egg embryos eaten from the shell), deploys a dash of vinegar as a foil. Although vinegar is not always the dominant flavor in any of these dishes — it is the ultimate underlying bond that brings Filipino food together.

Historically, the Philippines was a port for many travelers, particularly the Chinese immigrants, Spanish colonizers and Portuguese traders. And these influences can be seen in Filipino food. One such influence came in the form of necessary preservation. When boats were asea, it was crucial to find non-refrigerated ways to make foods last—enter vinegar. From kinilaw (marinated seafood, kind of like a ceviche) to dinuguan (a savory meat stew finished with pig’s blood), lumpia (a side sauce for fan-favorite fried spring rolls), and balut (fully cooked fertilized egg embryos eaten from the shell), vinegar was in everything and made Filipino food, well, Filipino food.

 

Because so much of Filipino cooking involves vinegar, there’s an equally strong vinegar-making game in the country, most  derived from native flora such as coconuts, sugarcane and palm. The most prevalent Filipino brand, Datu Puti, has been the country’s go-to condiment since its inception nearly 50 years ago.

Five years ago, in 2019, Carlo Lamagna opened Magna Kusina in Portland, Oregon, who was born in the Philippines, makes seasonal versions of Filipino street foods he grew up eating. He guarantees that 80% of his menu has some sort of vinegar in it. “For adobo, vinegar is the quintessential ingredient. It’s used to brighten up [the dish] without adding extra flavor,” Lamagna notes. His “Wilfredo’s Adobo,” is named for his dad, who taught him how to make it. It’s not as wet/stew-like as most adobo, with a ratio of 2:1:½, stock to vinegar to soy sauce.  “I like it pretty balanced,” Lamagna says. ”Soy is just a seasoning agent, vinegar is the star. it’s on your tongue as soon as you bite into the adobo,” which is usually a bright clean type, such as Datu Puti.

 

Acid does exist in other forms in the Philippines, such as calamansi, a tart Filipino citrus fruit, but Lamgna doesn’t use much, rather “I use vinegar in the same way  people add lemon and/or lime juice,,” says Lamagna. Often, for adobo, he reaches for white distilled vinegar for its neutral flavor and potent acidity, he also tries to source Filipino  vinegars when he can. “My grandmother had a cane field [in the Philippines],” Lamagna recollects, “and made her own vinegar; it was harsher than white distilled in a good way, with  a much more punchy profile.” He recommends Silver Swan’s mellow rice vinegar-like cane vinegar for adobo and otherwise — even though the company’s better known for its soy sauce.

Another way Lamagna amps up acidity isn’t just in the dish, it’s also on the table — with infused vinegars. Both in the Philippines, and often at his restaurant, sinamak, customarily a bottle of vinegar stuffed with chiles and garlic, is often left out as a self-serve condiment. He also offers suka pinakurat, a coconut sap vinegar that’s even more spiced than sinamak — with onions, sweet peppers, sugar and salt added in for more complexity and body, which he pairs with pork Shanghai lumpia. Texturally Lamagna notes that Filipinos like their condiments chunky; “it’s almost like [the combination of suka and spring roll] becomes a salad; cuts through the fat, brightens up the dish, and whenever vinegar is mixed with pork it’s such a delight — like pork vinaigrette.”

 

Another compulsory combination is the vinegar float atop balut, which many say is essential in enjoying the polarizing street food. “Vendors in the Philippines have two jars: one of vinegar, one of salt;” Lamagna advocates for trying vinegar first. “The rich consome inside the shell and super rich egg yolk need it [vinegar], a lot of people don’t get that nuance, and that’s what a good dash of vinegar can do!”.

At Abacá in San Francisco, another one of my West Coast Filipino cuisine confidantes, Francis Ang takes the innate flavors of his Pinoy heritage, and accentuates their global influences. A lamb adobo empanada is high on acid to balance out the gaminess of fatty lamb, encased in a Latin-leaning turnover. “We use a pinakurat vinegar fluid gel inside [the savory pastry] eliminating the idea of vinegar as a side dip for fried ingredients,” acknowledges Ang. Veggie lumpia has pineapple chili vinegar poured atop, as tokwa’t baboy (a pig’s ear salad) which is shaved carpaccio-style with smoked tofu cream, rhubarb and celery, layered with a gelee of black vinegar. In another application, Ang mixes cane vinegar with rice syrup and soy sauce boiled down to a syrupy gastrique that’s both piquant and profound — it graces a plate of smokey sweet longaniza pork sausage as a contrast.

 

While trying to find his modern Filipino form, Ang was also trying to find imported archetypal of indigenous vinegars; “there’s Sukang Iloko, local [to the Philippines] fermented cane sugar vinegar, traditionally fermented in burnay [earthenware] jars — [the vinegar is] dark in color, oxidized.” Ang includes this in a strawberry jus for a salmon kinilaw. He’s found an array of regional coconut vinegars as well, for his sweet-and-sour grilled chicken inasal, skewers from the Northwest city of Bacolod (in the Philippines), basted with bright yellow annatto butter.

  

Although pickles also play a part of how Ang introduces acidic elements — pickled Asian pears compliment an order of pork lumpia, and the requisite achara, grated unripe papaya (sometimes daikon and carrot as well) comes with a rotating selection of barbecue skewers — vinegar is a flavor enhancer at its core. It’s still has ties to a time when travelers first came through the Philippines; “a lot of times my parents, grandma or aunties would cook and leave food out for a few days [at room temperature] — in a tropical country, you can leave them [certain foods, like adobo, and even kinilaw] out in sun until the vinegar and salt preserves them.” Suffice to say, vinegar preserves traditional Filipino food in more ways than one.

 

BONUS RECIPE:

Abi Balingit, author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, adds a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to her adaptation of adobo chocolate cookies, vinegar is the vessel that brings the flavors of her Filipino heritage to a new audience.