Vinegar is the world's oldest cooking ingredient and food preservation method.
According to the Vinegar Institute (Vinegar Institute 2005), vinegar's use can be
traced back over 10,000 years. In fact, flavored vinegars have been manufactured and
sold for almost 5,000 years. The wide variety of vinegars available today is nothing
new. Until the six century BC, the Babylonians were making and selling vinegars
flavored with fruit, honey, malt, etc. to gourmets of the time. In addition, the Old
Testament and Hippocrates recorded the use of vinegar for medicinal purposes