substitutes
Balsamic Vinegar substitutes
Out of balsamic vinegar? Here are the best substitutes — what to reach for, why it works, and how much to use. Red wine vinegar + sugar is the top pick.
- 01Red wine vinegar + sugarbest pick
Rebuilds the sweet-sour depth.
1 tbsp vinegar + 1/2 tsp sugar
- 02Sherry vinegar
Complex and slightly sweet.
1:1
Cooking with balsamic vinegar?
Paste your recipe into Mise — we'll find every ingredient as a real product you can buy, and swap the ones you can't, like balsamic vinegar, for the closest match in stock.
Turn a recipe into a basket →How we choose these
These are tested kitchen substitutes, chosen for matching flavor, texture, and role — with ratios so the swap actually works. Taste as you go; substitutes shift intensity, not just flavor.
Flavor data: Epicure (Radzikowski & Chen, 2026), arXiv:2605.22391, CC-BY-4.0.