Vinegar Keeps Caramel Shiny and Smooth
A number of years ago, I wrote a recipe for Grilled Peaches and Pound Cake With Cider Vinegar Caramel Sauce for Serious Eats. At the time, I was delighted by how a little apple cider vinegar in the caramel offset the sweet summery peaches, rich poundcake and creamy whip. Vinegar wasn’t just acting as a flavor boost, it was functional in making a silky, shiny sauce. The acid prevents crystallization and graininess when caramelizing sugars in water. If you’ve ever tried to make caramel at home (or in a restaurant) you have almost certainly experienced times when the sugars weren’t quite fully dissolved, or the butter was too cold or dropped in too early, causing the caramel to seize, becoming a clumpy mess.
The science-y stuff about it is in how the sucrose molecules break down — when you add vinegar to the pot, the presence of acetic acid makes the sugar “invert”, as pastry chefs say — this turns into two separate saccharides: glucose and fructose. It’s like having two different building blocks that don’t fit back together so well; instead of reforming into a solid mass, the sugar(s) stay liquid longer, creating a smoother caramel.
This is not new science, in fact, Fannie Farmer put it to use in her recipe for vinegar candy 129 years ago. In the past decade pastry chefs around the country have embraced vinegar-laced caramel in desserts, utilizing not only the functional side, but also for flavor. In 2016, Rolf & Daughters, in Nashville, Tennessee, chef Philip Krajeck drizzled vinegar caramel sauce over benne seedd ice cream for a sundae. In 2019, New York City’s Per Se pastry chef Elaine Smyth dressed a Graham Cracker Génoise "S'Mores”, with a Cepa Vieja Sherry Vinegar Caramel, Cinnamon Marshmallow and Candied Peanuts. Or in 2022, when Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, CA riffed on a Goan bebinca dessert, swapping in sunchokes and saucing the whole thing with a house-made mango vinegar caramel. Most recently Instagram-famous Justine Doiron, author of best-selling cookbook Justine Cooks, plentifully poured her version over an apple rye galette, giving the dish that drip.
In Nashville, Tennessee, Scott Witherow, of Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. has put a new spin on the already exciting salted caramel category, with his Sea Salt & Vinegar Caramels, making vinegar a prominent part of the flavor profile. “It’s not some bonkers hard-to-find aged-whatever off-the-wall thing, or even a stronger vinegar like balsamic,” Witherow told me, reluctant to name names. With his salt & vinegar caramels, the salt’s still very much the star, and the vinegar acts additionally as a seasoning here. “I was really making a gastrique, a classic, old-school French sauce, and adding fat to it,” states Witherow, thinking of it more as a sauce than sweet.
I noticed that Tracy Obolsky was using vinegar caramel in another way when she posted a story about a sandwich special at her Rockaway Beach Bakery that contained a vinegar cider-mustard “caramel.” Obolsky formerly worked as a pastry chef in top Manhattan restaurants and about eight years ago, moved out to the beach in Queens to open her own place—and surf. I messaged her to find out more about this sandwich. “I made a wet caramel [one that starts with sugar and water rather than just sugar], then degazed with sherry vinegar, mounted with unsalted butter, whole grain mustard, salt and lotsa black pepper,” she tells me. The sauce was then slathered on housemade rosemary focaccia with melted aged cheddar, sliced apples and arugula.
“I’ve also done vinegar caramels for cheese plates,” Obolsky says, using Banyuls red wine vinegars for bigger, contrasting flavor combinations, and Braggs for apple cider vinegar for softer, more supple compliments. When Obolsky worked in more formal restaurants, she strived to plate dessert with less cream, more salt, and certainly more acid, the perfect ploy to add vinegar in. Vinegar can both be for form and function, especially in caramel, adding brightness and breaking up richness. It’s that simple, sleek and slick approach we’re all looking for in life.