Ina Garten Stores Her Vinegar In An Usual Spot

Raise your hand if you also have 24/7 eagle eyes on every peek at Ina Garten's kitchen and pantry. (Ina's fav store-bought olive oil: Olio Santo — check; no-cook snacks for hors d'oeuvres — got it; wooden and stainless utensils in separate crocks — done.) So how did we completely miss the fact that the Barefoot Contessa stores her vinegar in the fridge? (Like, right in there with that 100-year-old mayo you forgot about in the back.) "I know a lot of people keep them in the pantry," Garten confessed to Food & Wine of her collection of prized acids. "I might take hell for this, but I just find that they don't develop bacteria in the fridge."

As for those microorganisms, Garten may be referring to the vinegar mother (a slimy mass of bacteria that gets high on its own supply) which forms when sugars or alcohol haven't fully fermented, and reboot the cycle inside the bottle. It's harmless, and vinegar technically doesn't expire, but you might not want to drizzle "mother" over your roasted vegetables.

Most vinegar is pasteurized and less prone to deterioration, but it can still use a little TLC. Keep your bottles away from sunlight and hot ovens, and limit exposure to excessive humidity. You don't need to chill it to keep it food-safe, but if you're not a daily vinegar user, keeping your stash in the fridge slows down slight changes to color and flavor. Still — not to go against the queen of "how easy is that" life — thick-textured, aged balsamics aren't fridge-friendly; All that grape must hardens in chilly climates, making it impossible to pour.

If the vinegar you have in your pantry is just called ... vinegar ... allow us to crack the seal on your mind grapes with a veritable cornucopia of fabulously fermented flavors. Just low-key snooping around Ina Garten's fridge, you'll find everything from champagne vinegar to apple cider, balsamic, and red wine vinegars. "For anything I'm making, if it has like a little splash of vinegar, it just gives it an edge and wakes everything up," she says. Great! (So what exactly do people make with vinegar, again?)

Dark, moody balsamic vinegar goes hard all over the culinary space, jazzing up TikTok-trendy La Croix shrub cocktails, showboating as an unlikely ice cream topping, and dressing Anna Wintour's tomato-free caprese salad on repeat. Over in the solving-all-of-life's-problems supermarket aisle, golden apple cider vinegar (The cool kids' "ACV") lets you clean the smelliest fridge and give baked goods extra oomph with just a splash. The ACV categorized as "unfiltered," "raw," or "unpasteurized" usually still features the "mother" (She's ba-aaack), which also means it's packed with enzyme and probiotic-loaded bacteria.

Just about as delicate and effervescent as the bubbly from France, sunshine-colored champagne vinegar offers a mild whisper of acidic bite on everything from upgraded tartar sauce to tuna salad. (Don't worry; If you can't find it, you can swap white wine vinegar for the champagne version.) With all of these vinegars waiting in the wings, you're a drizzle away from brightening up your day — and your potatoes.