Pineapple Vinegar (🍍) : It’s Not That Complicated
As a pineapple emoji (🍍) would imply, I have a complicated relationship with pineapple vinegar. I love the tropical, sweet-tart taste, but the second the fruit starts to turn, it’s either time to pitch the quickly souring fruit, or act quick and turn its surplus of sugar into something spectacular! I, for one, vie for vinagre de piña, a vibrant, Latin American fruit vinegar, that can satisfy your pineapple needs.
My first taste of vinagre de piña came about a decade ago while researching my book, ACID TRIP. Rancho Gordo, an heirloom bean company based in California that sources outstanding products from Mexico. Amongst its offerings are glowing, golden bottles of pineapple vinegar made from fresh fruit juice that’s fermented with brown sugar (usually piloncillo, unrefined cane juice boiled down and molded into a cone), and as stated on the Rancho Gordo website, it’s, “essential to many Mexican stews, adobos, slow-cooked guisados and marinades.” I remember using my bottle to level up salsas, cure fish in ceviche, and even in cocktails (perhaps a punchier piña colada?!), but it had been a minute.
I tried making a version for myself, following a similar procedure, but first roasting the pineapple before juicing it for a more caramelized flavor. It was fascinating, and full of life. If you don’t want to go through the process of making your own, keep an eye out for Baldom Amber Vinegar (Pineapple Wine), or Korean varieties like this one. I had almost forgotten about this magnificent vinegar until a late-night TikTok wormhole took me to a video of Noah Tanen on Food52, in which he cut up an unpeeled pineapple into large chunks and stuffed them into a wide-mouthed mason jar for a Salvadorian-style pineapple vinegar. In Part 2, a 5-second time lapse is actually 3 ½ months in real time, and a cloudy, bubbly liquid is almost given up on, before being strained and bottled for its golden glow up. Although no real recipes are suggested, Tanen does mention curtido and pupusas and possible places to utilize his newfound pineapple vinegar.
Vinagre de piña must have been in the ether, or at least part of the algorithm, because a few nights later another video appeared — this time via Victor Nevarez, aka Internet Shaquille. Nevarez’s journey started with a perfunctory pickled pineapple recipe, which led to an exploration into Mexican tepache, a lightly fermented, low-alcohol pineapple beverage that uses the often discarded rind and core. Nevarez adds these scraps to a jar with water, panela sugar, a cinnamon stick and a habanero, letting the wild yeast, well, go wild! Another fermentation later, once the yeast eats up all the sugar, pineapple vinegar emerged yet again. Nevarez suggests using it as a salad dressing, marinade or mixed with seltzer water for a sparkling tonic. Or to complete the cycle: pickling pineapple in pineapple vinegar!
Another internet cook, Christine Lan, @eco.amical on TikTok frugal nature, forces her to save enough pineapple rinds in the freezer for a future double-fermentation into pineapple vinegar. Lan splashes some in a dark soy sauce-y udon noodle dish to brighten up the bowl. If you need extra eye candy, here’s a DIY pineapple vinegar video that uses whole baby pineapple, which after a first fermentation, are handpressed into a blonde liquor, and then age another couple months before being enjoyed.
In talking with numerous contemporary Mexican chefs around the country in hopes of finding homemade pineapple vinegars in their restaurants, most took on tepache in their kitchens,, but didn’t go that extra step. Krus Kitchen in Miami dresses oysters with pineapple vinegar (possibly homemade?) mignonette, and chef Ray Garcia of Los Angeles’s Broken Spanish, has been known to serve a panna cotta dish with pineapple vinegar (I’m hoping made in-house) drizzled on top, similar to a dish at Estela in NYC that uses cabernet vinegar instead. Needless to say, if you have a pineapple and time on your hands, cut it up, mix it with some water and sugar, and wait a while. You’ll see: pineapple vinegar is not that complicated.