Guides

Acid is the seasoning most home cooks skip.

A dish that tastes flat is usually not short of salt. It is short of acid. Salt makes flavours louder; acid makes them separate. It cuts fat, wakes up anything braised or roasted long and slow, and gives a rich plate somewhere to go.

Professional kitchens keep a vinegar within reach of the pass for that reason, and reach for it after the heat is off rather than at the start — heat drives off the sharpness you are adding it for. A finishing vinegar is not salad dressing. A spoonful over braised greens, stirred into a pot of beans, or across a fatty piece of pork does work that another pinch of salt cannot.

Which is also the cheapest upgrade on this page. A good finishing vinegar costs less than a pan and changes more dinners.

The oil in the tin is half of what you paid for.

Tinned fish is cured, packed and aged deliberately, and the oil it sits in takes on all of it. Pouring that down the sink and reaching for a fresh bottle throws away the most seasoned fat in the kitchen.

Use it where you would use olive oil and want more: a vinaigrette for bitter leaves, the base of a pan sauce, or brushed over toast before the fish goes on.