A person thoroughly familiar with vinegar can tell much regarding the source of the article from its appearance, color, odor, and taste.

If a glass be rinsed out with the sample of vinegar and allowed to stand for a number of hours or overnight, the odor of the residue remaining in the glass is quite different with different kinds of vinegar. Thus, wine vinegar has the odor characteristic of wine, and cider vinegar has a peculiar fruity odor. A small amount of practice with this test enables one to distinguish with a high degree of accuracy between wine and cider vinegars and the ordinary substitutes.

If a sample of vinegar be placed in a shallow dish on a warm stove or boiling teakettle and heated to a temperature sufficient for evaporation and not sufficient to burn the residue, the odor of the warm residue is also characteristic of the different kinds of vinegar. Thus, the residue from cider vinegar has the odor of baked apples and the flavor is acid and somewhat astringent in taste, and that from wine vinegar is equally characteristic. The residue obtained by evaporating vinegar made from sugar-house products and from spirit and wood vinegar colored by means of caramel has the peculiar bitter taste characteristic of caramel.

If the residue be heated until it begins to burn, the odor of the burning product also varies with different kinds of vinegar. Thus, the residue from cider vinegar has the odor of scorched apples, while that of vinegars made from sugar-house wastes and of distilled and wood vinegars colored with a large amount of caramel has the odor of burnt sugar. In noting these characteristics, however, it must be borne in mind that, in order to make them conform to these tests, distilled and wood vinegars often receive the addition of apple jelly.

The cheaper forms of vinegar, especially distilled and wood vinegar, are commonly colored with caramel, which can be detected by the method given.