Reason #957 Why Sugar is Awesome.

Dear Tricia, Let's say someone is making something and uses a little too much cider vinegar...is there something said person can do to counteract the vinegar? What about salt or other spices? This is purely hypothetical...I never make mistakes. I have a friend that is curious.


Of course its hypothetical... Is it the same friend who spilled red wine on my white couch last month? Because I know I certainly didn't do that. I never spill anything, ever.
Being vinegar- happy is an easy fix, and all it takes is.... wait for it...... wait for it.........








Sugar!








Right, sugar. (Suck on that, Dr. Atkins! Sugar can be awesome!) Start adding sugar a little at a time, stirring it in to whatever you screwed up and tasting it as you go. There's no recipe or formula here. Sorry. You messed it up and the universe isn't going to coddle you anymore. But keep adding a little bit of sugar until the flavor starts to balance out. If you're making soup, you may want to add a little brothk or water, or whatever the base of the soup is and that may help out as well.

In trying to figure out the science of why sugar works, I stumbled across the pH scale. Remember that lovely pH scale in 7th grade science? Acids are on one side of the pH scale in the 0's and 1's. Bases, or alkalines, are on the other side over in the 13-14 side. Neutral is right in the middle around 7. (In my mind, Lindsay Lohan would be at 0 with battery acid, Betty White would be at 14 with drain cleaner, and Jennifer Love Hewitt and her brain cell-robbing facial expressions would be neutral at 7.) Vinegar is acidic- it hangs out with the 2's and 3's in Lindsay Lohan's neighborhood on the acid side of the pH scale. I thought that maybe, to cancel out all that vinegar flavor, sugar might be hanging out with Betty White on the base side of things. But I was wrong: sugar is neutral, right around 6 and 7 with pure water and Jennifer Love Hewitt. So it's not counteracting anything, just masking the flavor. And that's fine too, because it still fixed your problem. Er, I mean, your friend's problem.