What exactly is vinegar made of or derived from? I thought once I heard it was made in some way from wood. That sounds very odd. How does it get that distinctive flavor? What then is Balsamic vinegar? What would I look for when seeking a good quality balsamic vinegar for dressings?
Vinegar is what you get if you allow wine or beer to ferment aerobically; alcohol is suffocated yeast wee, acetic acid is happy yeast wee.
Balsamic vinegar was invented in the 1980s by the oil industry as a novel solution to a waste disposal problem.
OK, not really; balsamic vinegar is reduced by boiling, then aged in wooden casks, where it takes on flavours from the wood (oak, I would imagine).
Vinegar is a product of fermentation, just like alcohol is. In fact, both can be made from the same ingredients–the difference is the fermenting organism. Wine is often used to make vinegar, and the clear vinegar is usually distilled from white wine or white grape juice stock after the vinegar fermentation process. The flavor comes largely from acetic acid.
I always assumed it’d be balsam.
Shrug.
Although balsamic vinegar was traditionally aged in resinous wooden barrels (and still is with many varieties), supposedly the name “balsamic” refers to the colour, thickness, and aroma.
Vinegar (the word) comes the French vin aigre meaning sour wine. This was the original source. I believe that most of the standard white vinegar today is manufactured directly from acetic acid. The more flavourful varieties, such as wine vinegar or cider vinegar, may still be produced by deliberately exposing the fermenting brews to air.
White vinegar is
If I remeber correctly:
Ascetic Acid and water…
Horray for Post #1:D
Whoa,
Bookeeper’s already ahead of me.
My grandpa, somewhat of an urban/suburban farmer, would always make vinegar when I was a wee bairn. He used to buy a case full of some cheap cooking wine, skin some collection of close-to-rotting sweet grapes, figs, etc., and pour the wine over it. Then he would cover it with a fly net and leave it out in summertime. He would then strain the mixture and aged it for a while.
ACETIC acid, not ascetic 
We’re talking salad dressing, not religious zealots
Pardon Moi,
where is the spell check (or should I say context check) on the reply box?
And if I could be so brash, kunoichi, it seems that you are quite the ASCETIC, when it comes to etymology and/or homonyms, that is;)
Most white vinegar in the US is made from apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is made by adding yeast to apple juice. The yeast digests the sugars in the juice and excretes ethyl alcohol (CH3CH2OH) as a waste product. Once this is done, you’ve got hard cider. Then bacteria are added to the cider. The bacteria digests the alcohol in the cider and excretes acetic acid (CH3COOH) as a waste product. This can be sold as is, but usually they adjust the acidity of the vinegar to a standard 5% by either adding more water or adding concentrated distilled vinegar.
You can make vinegar from any sort of sugary liquid, first turn it into alcohol and then allow the alcohol to become vinegar. Commercial vinegars are made by innoculating the juice with known strains of yeast and bacteria, but if you just leave juice out wild yeasts will usually ferment it, and then wild acetobacters will turn the alcohol into vinegar. If you open a bottle of wine and leave it sit out the wine will turn to vinegar pretty quickly.
White vinegar is made by distilling regular vinegar, just like vodka is made by distilling alcohol. The vinegar is heated and the acetic acid vaporizes. The acetic acid vapor is collected and condensed. The result is a mixture of distilled water and pure acetic acid. The distilled vinegar is adjusted to a standard acidity by adding water, usually to a standard 5%.
Ok, well I guess I deserved that. Just dont’ bring up entomology and we’re good 
G’day
In general. vinegar is made by aerobic fermentation of some feedstock that contains alcohol. In my kitchen I have vinegars made out of red wine, white white, apple cider, and neutral spirit distilled from fermented grain (the last is ‘white vinegar’, used for cleaning).
Real balsamic vinegar is made by putting red wine vinegar into casks and storing them for years in a climate with marked annual temperature variations. The volume of the vinegar is reduced as water and acetic acid seep out through the wood and evaporate, and from time to time the remaining syrup is transferred into smaller casks. The longer the vinegar is treated this way the darker, more viscous, and less sour it becomes–and since residual sugar in the vinegar does not evaporate, it becomes comparatively sweet.
Cheap fake balsamic vinegar is essentially a mixture of dark grape grape juice with vinegar, perhaps boiled to thicken it and reduce the acidic.
Regards,
Agback
In an earlier thread it was asserted that a lot of vinegar is synthesized from petroleum feedstock. I’m not sure how widespread this practice is though.
Frogs and snails and puppy-dog tails! No, wait . . .