Acid Trip: Travels in the World of Vinegar

In Acid Trip, Michael Harlan Turkell takes readers on a fascinating journey through the world of vinegar. An avid maker of vinegars at home, Turkell traveled throughout North America, France, Italy, Austria, and Japan to learn about vinegar-making practices in places where the art has evolved over centuries. This richly narrated cookbook includes recipes from leading chefs including Daniel Boulud, Barbara Lynch, Michael Anthony, April Bloomfield, Massimo Bottura, Sean Brock, and many others. Dishes range from simple to sophisticated and include Fried Eggs with a Spoonful of Vinegar, Sweet & Sour Peppers, Balsamic Barbecued Ribs, Poulet au Vinaigre, Tomato Tarragon Shrub, and even Vinegar Pie. Turkell also details methods for making your own vinegars with bases as varied as wine, rice, apple cider, and honey. Featuring lush color photographs by the author, Acid Trip is a captivating story of an obsession and an indispensable reference for any food lover who aspires to make and cook with the best ingredients.

“As any well-seasoned chef will tell you, balancing the acidity in a dish is as important as balancing saltiness or sweetness. With Acid Trip, Michael Harlan Turkell adds to our bookshelves in an astonishingly thorough and gorgeous way, tracing the culinary roots of vinegar from the dawn of cooking to modern cuisine around the globe. With recipes from Turkell and a host of great chefs, this book is destined to become as vital to your kitchen as vinegar is to a chef’s pantry."— J. Kenji López-Alt, managing culinary director of Serious Eats and author of The Food Lab

“Acid Trip is not just an ebullient love letter to a complex ingredient that the vast majority of us take for granted, it’s an epic on a grand scale—a textured patchwork of history, personal narrative, recipes, and imagery that leads us to a deeper appreciation of vinegar in all its forms and uses."— Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, founders of Food52

“At first glance you might think this is a book about a single mode of flavor. If so, you would be mistaken. This is a book about infinite rivulets of flavor. It’s a book about going deeper—deeper into cooking, deeper into history—in the same way that vinegar itself uses time and air and liquid to usher us deeper into deliciousness. Michael Harlan Turkell has delivered an essential volume that deserves a permanent, sauce-spattered place in your kitchen library.”— Jeff Gordinier, Food & Drinks Editor, Esquire

“Michael Harlan Turkell’s book is one of the most comprehensive, insightful, and delicious tomes of vinegar knowledge I’ve ever seen. This is the kind of acid trip I can get behind.”— Helen Hollyman, Editor-in-Chief, MUNCHIES, VICE Media

“As the title implies, Acid Trip is guaranteed to blow your mind. A kaleidoscopic guide to the world's finest ‘sour wines,’ the book brings us profiles of vinegar makers from Kyoto to California that read like fine fiction, and a treasure trove of recipes that look—and taste—totally terrific!” — Ari Weinzweig, co-owner and founding partner of Zingerman’s