Vinegars take up a surprising amount of space in my pantry. At last count, I had an impressive 14 bottles—everything from distilled white to nasturtium.
Vinegar is one of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen. But how many—and which—vinegars do you really need to keep on hand? Those of us with out-of-control vinegar collections (I repeat: nasturtium vinegar) or limited kitchen storage space needed to know.
To get to the bottom of this, I talked to Samantha Block, a test cook on the ATK books team. Sam worked on our Ultimate Meal-Prep Cookbook, which is all about stocking your kitchen with things you need and nothing you don’t.
Ultimately, the types of vinegar you should keep in your kitchen depend on what you like to cook. But we wanted to narrow it down to the “desert island” vinegars: the fewest bottles you can stock without compromising your cooking.