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I have added a good slosh of white wine vinegar to a dish by accident (it was meant to be white wine, not vinegar) and now all I can taste is a nasty vinegary taste.

I don't have any actual white wine so I want it to taste as if it's just without.

Is there anything I can do to save the dish?

It's a savory dish with mainly bacon, onions, garlic, carrots and Spring Greens and stock

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  • What are you trying to cook? Remedies will vary depending on if you're making a chicken stew or wine-poached pears...
    – user141592
    Apr 1, 2019 at 12:01
  • @Johanna I have updated the question
    – Banon
    Apr 1, 2019 at 12:04

2 Answers 2

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You may be able to save the dish by adding some bitterness and sweetness to counteract the acidity. Spinach, Kale and other bitter vegetables would work, as would bitter herbs like fenugreek. Sweetness could be sugar, honey, any sweetener to be honest.

There's limits to this approach, you may end up with something that is overwhelmingly sour, bitter and sweet at the same time and you have to get rid of it anyway. Sometimes you get something that tastes good with a neutral accompaniment like rice or pasta, you won't know unless you try.

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As stated, the details of your dish will make a difference. If there are elements in your dish which have absorbed the vinegar there may not be a great deal you can do. If, however, the dish is more of a stew or soup where things are sitting in the liquid, you might try straining off the existing stock/vinegar liquor and replacing with fresh.

Given that you would loose a lot of the complexity and intensity of flavour by straining off the existing stock I would try getting a fresh pan and cook up some fresh onions with plenty of butter, olive oil or even bacon fat if you have that available, plus some more garlic. Take time to really caramelize the onions to get a good depth of flavour and build up a fond in the pan, then deglaze with the new stock and add that mixture to the original dish.

Dilution by adding more of the original ingredients if you still have any will also help.

Check how is tastes when you have combined all of that and see if you have anything else in your cupboards that can add depth of flavour and umami to counteract any lingering vinegariness or 'thin-ness' of flavour from dumping the original liquid. From my own cupboard I'd probably be adding some dried cep powder or a slug of Colatura di alici (an Italian fish sauce made from anchovies) or even a spoon of Marmite or Bovril. You might not end up with exactly the original dish you were aiming for, but if you trust your tastebuds you should still end up with something good.

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