Black Vinegar

A dark, aged vinegar made from glutinous rice, sorghum, wheat, or millet, depending on the region. Chinese Zhenjiang vinegar is the most widely known — aged in clay jars for at least three years and tasting closer to balsamic than to anything else in the Western pantry. Japanese kurozu, brewed in open ceramic pots in the sun in Kagoshima, is sweeter and rounder and is meant to be sipped.

What makes black vinegar interesting is that it is not really a vinegar in the bright, acidic sense. It is closer to a long-aged condiment that happens to be acidic. The flavor leans toward dried fruit, soy, leather, and old wood. Used sparingly, it makes a sauce taste older than it is. Used incorrectly, it overwhelms.

A spoonful at the end of a slow-braised stew of pork or beef will do the work of an hour of reduction. A few drops over a piece of fried fish replace the lemon and add something the lemon cannot. It is, in this sense, structurally identical to the role of aged balsamic in Modena — a small, dark, deeply flavored liquid added in small amounts at the end of cooking, to make everything beneath it cohere.

This is the closest thing the Chinese and Japanese pantries have to aceto balsamico tradizionale. Different ingredients. Same role. Same patience.