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Baoning Handcrafted Black Vinegar, 20 Year
$30
A rare 20-year heritage black vinegar
Sichuan's Baoning Vinegar is one of the Four Famous Vinegars of China, with a history of more than 1,000 years. It is the vinegar of choice for Sichuan dishes. This very small-batch 20-year Baoning is the most complex and fullest bodied the company makes.
All Baoning vinegars are deep red-brown and full-bodied, and the taste is more savory than sweet. The multigrain composition—wheat bran, rice, corn, sorghum and buckwheat—hits the nose and palate in unfamiliar but intriguing ways, registering as deeply flavorful and mildly acidic, with a mellow aftertaste.
Baoning’s aged vinegars (vs. its young, mass market version found in Chinese supermarkets) are fully handcrafted and maintain ancient brewing techniques requiring 42 procedures. Unique among China’s vinegars, the fermentation starter, or qu, includes 20 kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs. The herbs lend Baoning a rich and subtly herbal, though not medicinal, flavor.
While a thousand-year history for a food brand is kind of unfathomable in the West, we believe it can be tasted in today's product. It's hard to describe Baoning vinegar's aroma, but whiffing a 10- or 20-year vinegar smells a bit like walking into an ancient vinegar workshop and breathing in the centuries.
Like Eastern China's Zhenjiang vinegar, Baoning is a “black vinegar.” Zhenjiang is the more well-known black vinegar outside China, but Baoning can be substituted in most Chinese recipes.
Our line of Sichuan vinegars
We carry three handmade Baoning vinegars of varying age designations; each has a slightly different mix of grains, and they all have a tiny amount of sugar. They have no caramel color, flavor additives or preservatives.
A 3-year Baoning that is a blend of different batches: an every day vinegar for seasoning and cooking
Baoning’s aged vinegars are fully handcrafted using a 42-step ancient brewing technique.
The company attributes its legendary vinegar partly to Langzhong’s location in the “golden brewing belt” at 37 degrees north latitude. It has a humid climate, abundant sunshine and a frost-free period of more than 290 days—a magical environment for the wild fermentation that gives Baoning its unique profile.
Like China’s other fermented sauces, Baoning vinegar begins with a "qu" to jumpstart the fermentation process (an idea the Japanese borrowed and named koji). Unlike China’s other fermented sauces, Baoning’s qu includes more than 20 herbs from Traditional Chinese Medicine, which lend the vinegar a unique, though not medicinal, flavor profile.
The multiple grains that comprise Baoning, led by wheat bran, are then fermented in aged earthenware crocks that carry years of microbes in their walls, infusing it with the unique taste of the Baoning terroir. The older the crock, the more complex the vinegar, and you can taste it in this small-batch 20-year, made in crocks used continuously for two decades.
History + Honors
Baoning vinegar is the pride of Langzhong, a 2,300-year-old city in northeastern Sichuan that was formerly called Baoning and is now an “ancient city” that is part of Nanchong. It was first brewed during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, flourished during the Qin and Han dynasties, and was named Baoning vinegar in 936 C.E., during the Later Tang period of the Five Dynasties. Later, the formula was improved by an imperial vinegar brewing master in the late Ming dynasty, who incorporated Chinese herbal medicine in the qu and established it as the standard for wheat-bran vinegar brewing in Southwestern China.
Baoning’s modern accolades begin with a gold medal at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, and since then it has racked up China's highest honors, including China Time-Honored Brand and National Intangible Cultural Heritage for its traditional brewing technique.
Compare To
China’s grain-based vinegars taste quite different from the West’s fruit and wine vinegars, and we don’t recommend a Western vinegar for Chinese dishes.
But just as in Western cooking, where you might keep a stock of apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar, Chinese cooking also has a range of different types of vinegar with different tastes and uses. We carry three of the four that are historically called the Four Famous Vinegars of China, but there are many more well-known regional vinegars used in China.
Of the three we carry, wheat-based Baoning Vinegar is bright and savory, while Zhenjiang Vinegar, which is mostly glutinous rice, is fuller and slightly sweet, and sorghum-based Shanxi Mature Vinegar is the most intense.
Chinese recipes in English often call for Zhenjiang, aka Chinkiang, vinegar, since that was the best of what was historically available abroad. But now that other superior regional vinegars are available, it is possible to match the vinegar with the regional cuisine you are cooking. Or you might match the vinegar with the cooking technique, using the bolder vinegars for braises and longer cook times. More pragmatically, you can just choose a favorite, as the premium Chinese vinegars are mostly interchangeable in Chinese cooking when black vinegar is called for.
How To Use It
Baoning vinegar is used in many Sichuan cold sauces for noodles and vegetables and is a must-have ingredient for classic flavor profiles such as yuxiang and gongbao (kungpao) and other sweet-and-sourish dishes.
Seasoning and dipping: Use black vinegar to add tanginess and depth of flavor to dishes like dumplings, noodles and cold appetizers.
Stir-frying: Add black vinegar toward the end of stir-frying to preserve its flavor.
Soups and braises: Use black vinegar in soups or braised dishes to add a sour note. It can help balance the flavors in rich and hearty dishes.
This premium 20-year vinegar is best used for cold dishes and dressings and as a condiment for dumplings and noodles.
Storage
Chinese black vinegar should be stored in a cool and dry place, away from direct sunlight and heat sources (preferably a closed cupboard or pantry). Ensure the bottle or container is tightly sealed to prevent air from entering and oxidizing the vinegar. Proper sealing helps maintain its flavor and quality.
Naturally brewed vinegars do not expire; dark sediment is normal. No refrigeration is necessary.
