When was vinegar invented

Jarvis also wrote that apple cider vinegar could destroy harmful bacteria in the digestive tract and recommended as a digestive tonic to be consumed with meals. People using it for health usually look for unfiltered apple cider vinegar containing the Mother, a web-like substance that naturally occurs during the vinegar making process where the majority of health benefits are thought to originate.

A Brief History of Vinegar. Apple Cider Vinegar for Health. And with a system known today as "marinating", the Romans used vinegar to preserve fried fish. For Pliny the Elder, who in his Naturalis Historia recommends it for all sorts of ailments, vinegar adds taste and pleasure to life.

The Roman Legionaries were never without vinegar. During military campaigns, vinegar was used by the soldiers diluted in water as a thirst-quenching drink and as a body wash, to counteract the effects of life in the camp and non-serious injuries. During the war between Carthage and Rome, the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal BC crossed the Alps at the Little St Bernard Pass with infantry, cavalry and elephants in order to avoid the sea, where the Romans ruled.

So much is well-known. Less known is how he did it. The route was narrow and winding, impracticable for the enormous elephants. So Hannibal ordered great branches to be wedged between the rocks that blocked the way, then burned. The soldiers then poured vinegar over the scorched rocks, making them soft enough to be broken, thus clearing the route for the troops and animals.

In the Middle Ages, the art of vinegar-making was perfected and Agresto appeared, a vinegar made from unripe grapes whose fresh, sour taste, counteracted excessive fat in seasonings. In , the city and surrounding area boasted thirty-three vinegars, partly because the local wines — light, fruity and low in acid — lent themselves to the transformation into vinegar. And since navigation was very slow for the boats travelling up the river, which were often delayed by low water levels, the wines arrived in port ruined and ready to be made into vinegar by blending with local wines in precise proportions.

In the fourteenth century, the Plague spread across the whole of Europe killing one in three individuals and, until , there was no year in which there was no outbreak of this curse, either contained or widespread. But in , the last major epidemic in Western Europe, the inhabitants of Marseilles defended themselves against the air that "generates fevers" by holding a sponge soaked in vinegar in their hands, which was inhaled continuously and, on the part of the doctors, "attached to the nose" without ever breathing through the mouth and without swallowing saliva.

The doctors were accompanied by a nurse who carried a vinegar bowl where the doctor repeatedly dipped his hands before touching the patient. Then, when the plague slowed down, the walls of affected houses were washed with vinegar. A bandage soaked in vinegar wrapped the foreheads of the "monatti", described by Manzoni, who carried the dying and dead; however, this did not preserve them from contagion. But four of them some say seven , during the plague of Marseilles in , managed to "work" while stealing and pillaging with impunity because they were immune, thanks to ablutions and gargles with an aromatic vinegar whose composition was unknown to them because each one contained an ingredient that was unknown to the others.

Condemned to death for looting and robbery, their lives were saved by this vinegar, which has since taken the name of the four thieves' vinegar. Today a French scholar, Misette Godard, has tried to reconstruct the vinegar of the four thieves from the original recipe preserved in Marseille, a recipe that uses numerous herbs, cloves, camphor and absinthe, all combined with three pints of vinegar.

Vinegar is as old as civilization itself: traces of it have been found in Egyptian urns from around B. Vinegar is a sour liquid which is produced from the fermentation of diluted alcohol products. This yields the organic compound acetic acid, its key ingredient. Used in many cultures as a condiment and preservative, vinegar can be made from a variety of liquids, including malted barley, rice, and cider; however, as its name suggests, it was probably first made from wine.

The word vinegar derives from the Old French vinaigre, meaning "sour wine. The first stage is fermentation, in which the sugars are broken down in the absence of oxygen by yeast to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. In the second stage, the addition of oxygen enables bacteria to produce amino acid, water, and other compounds. Thus, the British alternative to malt vinegar, called non-brewed condiment, does not qualify as vinegar because its acetic acid component is obtained directly by distilling wood chips, bypassing the first, ethanol-producing stage.

Over the centuries and around the world, a wide variety of vinegars has been created, with their own colours and flavours. These are used for culinary pickling processes, vinaigrettes, salad dressing, condiments , medicinal, agricultural, horticultural, and cleaning purposes. Though commercial production of vinegar continues to involve the natural action of bacteria, industrial methods accelerate the process, primarily through mechanisms that increase the bacteria's supply of oxygen necessary for the conversion of ethanol into acetic acid.

High-quality vinegars, such as the balsamic vinegars prepared in Modena, Italy, continue to be produced via a slow process of fermentation, typically aging for years in wood barrels. Today, vinegar remains an important element in European, Asian, and other traditional cuisines of the world; it is often used in pickling and in the creation of marinades, dressings, and other sauces.

It also functions as a folk remedy and as a natural household cleaning product and herbicide. Commercial production Acetic acid is produced both synthetically and by bacterial fermentation. Today, the biological route accounts for only about ten percent of world production, but it remains important for vinegar production, as many of the world food purity laws stipulate that vinegar used in foods must be of biological origin.

For most of human history, acetic acid has been made from fermented liquids by acetic acid bacteria of the genus acetobacter. However, their function was not understood until Louis Pasteur discussed the microbiological basis of vinegar in his work Etudes sur le Vinaigre. Given sufficient oxygen, acetobacter can produce vinegar from a variety of alcoholic foodstuffs.

Commonly used feeds include apple cider, wine, and fermented grain, malt, rice, or potato mashes.