Works for Me Wednesday: Vinegar in the Kitchen

• When boiling or steaming cauliflower, beets or other vegetables, add a teaspoon or two of white distilled vinegar to the water to help them keep their color. This will also improve their taste, and reduce gassy elements. This also works when cooking beans and bean dishes.

• Make pasta less sticky and reduce some of its starch. Add just a dash of white distilled vinegar to the water as it cooks.

• Remove kitchen odors that come from burnt pots or when cooking certain foods by boiling a small amount of water with 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar so that the steam circulates throughout the room.

• Make onion odors disappear from your hands by rubbing with white distilled vinegar.

• Add moistness and taste to any chocolate cake—homemade or from a box—with a spoonful of white distilled vinegar.

• To keep frosting from sugaring add a drop of white distilled vinegar. It will also help keep white frosting white and shiny.

• Make perfect, fluffy meringue by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for every 3 to 4 egg whites used.

• Perk up any can of soup or sauce with a teaspoon of red or white wine vinegar.

• Eliminate the greasy taste in food cooked in a deep fryer by adding a dash of white distilled vinegar.

• If you’ve added too much salt to a recipe, add a spoonful of white distilled vinegar and sugar to try correcting the taste.

• Keep molded gelatin desserts and salads from sagging or melting in the summer heat by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for each box of gelatin used.