Blueberries Taste 10x Better When You Add A Dash Of This Pantry Staple

Those sweet little blue spheres don't need a lot of improvement generally speaking, but there is something in your pantry that could take blueberries from good to amazing. It's not sugar, or even syrup, it's vinegar — balsamic vinegar to be exact. Balsamic vinegar has just enough acidity to sharpen and balance the fruit's natural sweetness while also bringing its own unique flavor profile.

The trick is to only use a dash of it, enough to subtly cover many of the berries without drowning them. And it's balsamic vinegar (as opposed to any other type of vinegar) that works so well for this trick because, unlike other vinegars such as apple cider or red wine vinegar, balsamic has very distinct sweet and fruity taste. If you have traditional balsamic vinegar in your pantry, and not a balsamic-style vinegar, it will have been purposefully aged to give it an even more complex flavor, but the more affordable supermarket balsamic vinegars can still be used with blueberries.

You might be thinking, "I'm not eating fruit and vinegar together!" but it is not as strange as it sounds. In many recipes, both sweet and savory, balsamic vinegar is paired with fruit; for example many recipes use balsamic vinegar for blueberry jam, jelly, or preserves, and it's not uncommon to see them together in salads. Sometimes they're combined to create a blueberry-balsamic vinaigrette or sometimes blueberries are added whole to a balsamic-dressed salad. 

And there is a bit of a culinary science behind the combination, which comes down to creating contrast. Blueberries are usually sweet but their sweetness varies depending on their ripeness and variety (not necessarily their size). So, serving them with a splash of balsamic vinegar creates some extra acidity which can make the sweet, fruity flavors more pronounced. Think of it as a way to make a tart, acidic backdrop for the sweet berries to stand out against.

And the easiest way to enjoy the sweet-savory contrast is so just add a splash of balsamic vinegar to a handful of blueberries and let them marinate for ten minutes. You can also briefly heat the blueberries in balsamic in a pan to serve them hot over ice-cream, yogurt, or oats.