Vinegar

Let me tell you about vinegar, and why a bottle of it will outlive you if you treat it right.

Vinegar is a sour liquid made by fermentation. However it got there, the sourness is the whole point. Taste a drop and it hits you clean and sharp, no mistaking it for anything else. That bite is what a cook trusts: pickle something in good vinegar, with a clean hand and a clean jar, and it keeps.

Choose vinegar with your nose. Good vinegar smells sharp and clean, never flat, never musty. A musty smell means pass it by. Look at it too, but don't be afraid of what you see: some haze, or a few thin strands floating in there, is nothing to worry about. Give it a sniff and a taste before you decide — that's what tells you whether it's still good, not the clearness of the glass.

Some people say vinegar needs the fridge once opened. No! Keep it in the cupboard, cap tight, away from the stove's heat. Chill it, and all you have done is take up fridge space that your milk and your meat actually need — and you will find the bottle sitting there a year later, smelling and biting exactly as sharp as the day you bought it.