26 Ways to Use Vinegar in the Kitchen: Kitchen Vinegar Hacks from Food, Cleaning and Other

Vinegar is like the staple of all staples. And the usage of vinegar in the kitchen is no exception. I probably use it in the kitchen more than any other product.

Seriously.

Have you ever thought and pondered the versatility of this amazing liquid? I am baffled about all of the ways we use vinegar in our home.

Daily.

In fact, multiple times per day.

Probably even nearly every hour!

That would explain why I have to grab 3-4 two-gallon boxes every month from Sam’s Club or Costco.

Most cost efficient price in our area is $3.98 or about $2 a gallon at our local Sam’s Club or Costco. This may be the best deal in your area, or try to beat the $2 price per gallon! 

We have shared many of the versatile uses of vinegar from the outdoors, to the gardens to the laundry and for natural cleaning solutions!

Well today, we want to share the incredible uses of vinegar in the kitchen with Kitchen Vinegar Hacks! After reading this list, you will probably have a gallon of it under your kitchen sink too!

Cleaning Hacks:

Clean and preserve kitchen shears.

Kitchen shears are one of my most beloved kitchen tools. I use it to cut cooked meats, but raw meats, cut pizza, cut breads, cut veggies, fruits and so much more. So when I want to clean my good quality shears, the best way to do it is using vinegar! This also prevents rusting on the components of those kitchen scissors. Wipe down your blades with vinegar and wipe dry!

Make an all-purpose cleaner for all surfaces. 

An easy cleaner to make and use for pretty much anything in your kitchen is the all-purpose cleaner made with vinegar. It’s natural and effective. The recipe is for homemade natural all-purpose cleaner is HERE.

Clean the kitchen floors with a vinegar floor solution.

It is a perfect cleaner because it is frugal, natural, grabs stuck on grease, food and sticky messes and leaves no residue. It shines up nicely too! The recipe for natural homemade vinegar floor cleaner is HERE.

Clean your faucets and faucet heads with vinegar. 

It removes hard water, it shines, is sparkles and it clears the gunk and bacteria too. Find out how to use vinegar to clean faucets and faucet heads HERE. 

Shine up the stainless steel sink and degrease too! 

No need for expensive cleaners to shine-up and degrease your stainless steel sink. Vinegar does the trick beautifully! Find out how to clean and shine up stainless steel sinks with vinegar HERE. 

Clean and deodorize a microwave.

Vinegar does the fast and cheap trick to clean and deodorize a microwave. Microwaves can become quite stinky and collect a lot of food debris. With water and vinegar, you can have it looking and smelling brand new in now time! Learn how to clean your microwave with vinegar HERE.

Make a DIY stainless steel cleaner for your appliances. 

Whip up a batch of THIS stainless steel cleaner and store it in a spray bottle to use whenever you clean the kitchen to give your appliances a good cleaning – degreasing, destreaking and actually making smudge resistant too!

Give your dishwasher a good cleaning every couple of months. 

Vinegar is a great alternative to the expensive dishwasher cleaners. I was told by a plumber that pouring a cup or two of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher and running a cycle will “deep clean” your dishwasher safely. It removes hard water, removes odors and makes for a shiny tub! Note that you don’t want to use it as your rinse aid – we have a recipe for that. Using vinegar daily will eventually eat away at the seals, but the plumber told me that rinsing the dishwasher with vinegar once a month will preserve the performance and effectiveness of the dishwasher and does no harm to seals.

Wash your coffeemaker.

The coffeemaker can collect quite a bit of “coffee gunk” and a great solution is to run a cycle with vinegar and then a follow-up cycle with water. It really cleans it out well and effectively, making your future coffee experiences much more tasty. 🙂

Sanitize wood surfaces and cutting boards.

Any wood in your kitchen can be cleaned, degreased and sanitized with vinegar. Simply spray and wipe down your cupboards, butcher blocks and cutting boards. Instant results!

Clean your fridge and freezer.

Because of the effectiveness of vinegar to kill bacteria and remove odors, it is a perfect cleaning solution for the fridge and freezer. Spray it down with vinegar and wipe the bacteria and odors away!

An effective oven cleaner. 

To clean your oven, make a baking soda and water paste. Apply and scrub this into your oven with a scouring pad. Let it soak for a few minutes. Then spray with vinegar and wipe away. It really digs in deep to remove stuck on residue and grease.

Make garbage disposal cleaning a breeze.

Want to know the trick to a good, effective cleaning routine for your garbage disposal that will eliminate odors, sharpen blades and increase performance? Vinegar and a few other items are the ticket to garbage disposal success!

Here’s how:

 

Vinegar Cooking Hacks:

Fast and easy buttermilk

 If you need buttermilk for a recipe (like buttermilk ranch or in homemade waffles/pancakes) make your own in 10 minutes with this trick! Mix 1 cup milk (whole, 2%, or heavy cream) with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Then let it set for about 10 minutes at room temperature. The new buttermilk will be thicker and a little curdy. By the way, we use buttermilk in our homemade Creamy Cornbread. AMAZING!

Use vinegar to make perfect poached eggs.

Poached eggs are one of our favorites because they are a healthier way to enjoy a “fried” type egg.

Hard Boiling Eggs.

Add about a tablespoon of vinegar to your boiling water for hard boiled eggs as this will keep the egg whites from leaking out if you egg accidentally cracks while cooking.

Make cooked pasta healthier and easier to digest.

Vinegar’s acetic acid slows down how quickly you digest and absorb glucose from starch; this helps to control hunger and makes you less likely to eat later. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a starchy dish to stabilize your post-meal blood sugar.

Make a cake! 

Use vinegar in your homemade cake instead of the butter, eggs and milk and you can have a frugal cake that is super fluffy and tasty! It is called The Great Depression Cake and the recipe is so easy and so frugal, and no one will know!

Make a fast Italian Dressing or marinade.

It’s very fast and easy! Simply use 1 TBSP of this Homemade Italian Seasoning and mix it with 6 TBSP of Olive Oil and 2 TBSP of vinegar and you have an instant Italian Dressing!

Make an Asian sauce or dressing.

This little recipe is actually used the most! We have Asian salads and Asian dishes mutliple times per week as it is easy to fit into our family’s eating needs. To make: simply add 4 TBSP of sesame oil, 2 TBSP of vinegar, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of sesame seeds, 2 TBSP of soy sauce. This is the base salad dressing. Then add 2 TBSP of hoisin sauce and 1/2 TBSP of sriracha sauce to make an Asian sauce. This Asian Sauce can be used for anything and any meat. I marinate Salmon, chicken, beef, pork in it and cook it. I use it in stir-fry, I use it in other rice and meat casseroles. I use it a lot!

Vinegar is the base for most homemade condiments and BBQ sauce. 

If you are not making Italian or Asian sauce, you can make a myriad of other homemade condiments and sauces with vinegar. It is such a versatile cooking staple! Not to mention, homemade pickles too!

Miscellaneous Vinegar Hacks:

Removes labels off jars.

I reuse glass jars like crazy in my home for nearly anything and everything. But getting those labels off is a real bugger. I will peel the label off as best as I can, scrub it with baking soda as the scouring helps to get most of it off and then remove the residue with vinegar. Works beautifully as a DIY Goo Gone.

Collecting grease while cooking.

Did you know that when you are cooking or frying something with oil or grease, place a bowl of vinegar near your cooking space and the vinegar will collect the grease instead of the grease hanging in the air.

Help flowers last longer.

If you received a fresh flower bouquet, you can help preserve the life of the flowers filling the vase with a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Homemade flower preservative!

Fruit and Veggie wash. 

Make a fruit and veggie wash with vinegar. Either spray it on your fruits and veggies and rinse or let them soak in a sink with water and vinegar. Either way, you will get clean produce the natural and cheap way!

Fix clogs. 

Clear the clogs in your kitchen sink, or give them a good cleaning. Either way, it’s easy. Boil water. Then pour about 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain. Follow up with about a cup or two of vinegar. Let it react for a few minutes. Then wash it down with straight boiling water. Then, turning your tap to the hottest level, run the tap water for about a minute for a final rinse out!