BUCKHORN CLIFFSA preparedness field manual

Food · Supply

Rice Vinegar

How long rice vinegar keeps, seasoned against plain, why its acidity matters for pickling and canning, how to store it, how to tell it has changed, and its jobs in the kitchen and beyond.

INDEFINITECHECK THE ACIDMULTI-USEWorks without power

Quick facts

  • Real shelf lifeIndefinite
  • Label date says2 years
  • AcidityUsually 4 to 4.5 percent; check the label before canning
  • Watch forHarmless sediment and cloudiness; mold only if contaminated

Where this sits on the food shopping list

Rice vinegar is vinegar made from fermented rice, milder and a little sweeter than white vinegar, and like every vinegar it keeps indefinitely; it's on the field guide's Indefinite 15. The one thing to know before it goes in the store is its strength: most rice vinegar is 4 to 4.5 percent acetic acid, and tested home canning and pickling recipes call for 5 percent, so for the canning shelf it's white or cider vinegar and rice vinegar is for the table.

Which to buy

Plain (unseasoned) rice vinegar for the store; seasoned rice vinegar has sugar and salt added, keeps the same, and is for sushi rice and dressings. Read the acidity on the label, and keep a gallon of 5 percent white vinegar beside it for pickling, canning and cleaning. Glass bottles keep best. A bottle or two is plenty; it is a flavor, not a staple.

How long it really lasts

By how it is kept

FormLabel saysReal, stored well
Rice vinegar, plain or seasoned, sealed2 yearsIndefinite
Opened, cap tight, pantryIndefinite; seasoned vinegar may darken
White or cider vinegar, 5 percent, for canning2 yearsIndefinite
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What to store, how much of it for one person for one month, and how long it keeps. One page with checkboxes, built from the Survival Foods field guide. Print it, multiply by your people and months, and take it to the store.

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How to store it

Cap tight in a cool, dark cupboard; light and heat fade the aroma. Glass over plastic for the long term. It needs no fridge, before or after opening.

How to tell it has turned

Vinegar does not spoil. Cloudiness, sediment, or a gel-like disc floating in the bottle is a vinegar mother, harmless bacteria that make more vinegar; strain it out or leave it. Darkening in seasoned rice vinegar is the sugar. Mold is possible only if something got into the bottle and means the bottle goes.

Keep it

Cloudy or sedimented vinegar, a mother in the bottle, a bottle years past its date.

Discard on sight

Mold, which is rare and only follows contamination.

How much, and how to use it

Seasoning for rice (a tablespoon with a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt per cup of cooked rice), the base of a dressing with oil and soy sauce, quick refrigerator pickles that need no canning (equal parts rice vinegar and water, with salt and sugar, poured over vegetables and kept cold for weeks), a meat tenderizer in a marinade, and the field guide's other jobs below: a facial toner and a glass cleaner. For anything that goes in a canning jar, use the 5 percent vinegar the recipe specifies.

What else it does

  • Sushi seasoning
  • Pickling
  • Dressing base
  • Meat tenderizer
  • Facial toner
  • Glass cleaner

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.

Questions this answers

Tap a question for the short answer.

How long does rice vinegar last?

Indefinitely, sealed or opened, against a label of 2 years. Cloudiness, sediment or a vinegar mother are harmless.

How do I tell if rice vinegar has gone bad?

It does not spoil. Mold means something contaminated the bottle, and the bottle goes; everything else is normal age.

Can you use rice vinegar for pickling and canning?

For refrigerator pickles, yes. For tested canning and pickling recipes, only if the label says 5 percent acidity; most rice vinegar is 4 to 4.5 percent, so keep white or cider vinegar for the canning shelf.

Keep going

Read nextWhite Rice for Preparedness: How to Store It for 30 YearsThe cheapest calorie that keeps. Which rice to store and which to skip, the four enemies, how long it lasts by method, a bucket packed step by step, bug and mold signs, and cooking it with five minutes of fuel.Food · Supply

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Everything in FoodNever-mix checkerShelf life tableFind a recipe by needWalk-around auditStart here

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