Ancient Chinese Secret

Vinegar is one of my favorite flavors. I use vinegar to deglaze the pan after cooking meat or fish; add a splash to any sauce that needs a flavor boost (especially winter tomato sauce); sprinkle it on vegetables before roasting, and eat it on fruit. Of course, I don’t use supermarket vinegars. I buy vinegar made from homemade wine at DiBruno’s in the Italian Market, or odd Chinese and Japanese rice vinegars in Chinese or Vietnamese markets, or expensive balsamics, or make my own from DiBruno’s vinegar and organic unpasteurized apple or peach cider. Good vinegar works better than wine in most recipes: the flavor is purer and more intense, and the acidity, except for a scarcely perceptible sour tanginess, boils out.

My newest vinegar find is China’s Secret. China’s Secret is the American brand name of a vinegar brewed in the Shanxi province of Northern China. It’s dark brownish red, with an acidity so low (only 4 percent) that you can drink it from the bottle. It tastes naturally sweet and mildly bitter, something like thinned-out molasses, but vaguely beany… and delicious.

Shanxi vinegar, all natural and chemical-free, is made from sorghum, barley and peas and fermented for over a year with a secret mother of vinegar that’s been living its beneficial bacteria life since 770 B.C.

“At least 770 B.C.,” says Lew Toppel, CEO of China’s Secret. “The tradition of the vinegar goes back thousands of years 770 B.C. is only the date that the recipe became public property. As public as a recipe can be that’s still one of the best-kept secrets in the world. I can tell you a little bit about how Shanxi vinegar is made but only a little. There are steps in the process the artisans won’t let me see. And artisans is the right word.”

Of the many vinegars made in Shanxi province, China’s Secret is “the Cadillac,” says Toppel. “It’s still made the traditional way, with the traditional ingredients. Even the china crocks that the vinegar is fermented in are over 1,000 years old.”

At Fante’s, where I got my first bottle, China’s Secret costs $13.98 the half-liter bottle. Toppel is surprised at the price. “Only $13.98?” he says. “One major mail-order company is charging $23 the half-liter, plus $10 shipping and handling.”

Even if it’s “only” $14, that’s still a lot of money for vinegar. But a good balsamic costs as much. And you’ve spent $14 on a pizza, or a couple glasses of jug-grade house wine in a restaurant. Why not spend as much on an all-natural, artisan-made flavoring ingredient that will last a month or more?

Shanxi comes with its own recipe booklet, but you don’t really need one. Add a squirt just at serving to grilled salmon. Or put a little on the table as a dip for grilled fish, meat or steamed vegetables, or toss it in with steamed veggies. Best of all, cut fresh, ripe local strawberries in half and toss with a tablespoon or so of Shanxi vinegar. If you can’t get local berries, marinate California berries overnight in the same amount of vinegar. You get added tang and indefinable, richer flavor Shanxi can be used on different foods, even at the same meal, without overpowering or making them taste the same.

Toppel says he discovered Shanxi “just by luck” when he was a student at the University of Illinois in Chicago and saw a posting on the job board from a company called D.R. Shane.

“Turns out it was the biggest supplier of Chinese restaurants and food stores, owned by Sha Shi Quo, who used D. R. Shane because he got tired of Westerners mispronouncing his real name. I went to work, and stayed all through school. Sha Shi Quo was a wonderful man to work for.”

After school, Toppel moved to Wisconsin and started a business, and in 1985 got a call from Sha Shi Quo.

“A delegation from China was looking to buy cows in America. I said, ‘Wisconsin’s got more cows than people.’ So they all came up, the governor of Wisconsin met them, the secretary of Agriculture met them, they bought the cows. And I got invited to China.”

“In 1988, I finally went, and got up to Shanxi, where the cows went. Shanxi is near Mongolia. Very isolated. The first road connecting it to Peking was completed in 1996. Two East Germans, two Russians, my wife and me, were the only occidentals in the entire province of 33 million. We went to lots of banquets. Each one started with a tiny cup, just a tablespoon’s worth, of Shanxi vinegar. And then you dipped all your food in more vinegar. The people of Shanxi make all kinds of medicinal claims for it. I don’t know about that. But they are a very healthy people.”

He decided to try to bring the vinegar into the United States, and learned what he could from the artisans, “who are highly respected throughout China.” They taught him about the mash of sorghum, barley and peas which forms the basis for the vinegar the only one in the world, says Toppel, that is made of those three ingredients.

“They bake them in a brick oven. Take them out, cool them, bake them in a smaller oven, then a smaller one. Each one is hotter, I think. Somewhere along the way, they add the mother of vinegar, which is thousands of years old. I don’t know exactly when this isn’t called China’s Secret for nothing. Then it’s mixed with water and put in china vats, also a thousand years old or more, and exposed to sunlight for a year. That kills bad bacteria and helps beneficial bacteria to grow. It has to be watched the entire time.”

Bringing the product into the States wasn’t easy.

“I kept on, doing the paperwork and negotiation in America and China, and then Tiananmen Square came along and knocked everything to hell. But, you get a setback, you just try again.”

“Finally, everything worked. We’re growing fast. It started with word of mouth. Then gourmet magazines, then we were shown on Oprah. Shanxi vinegar is getting to be China’s most famous secret.”

China’s Secret vinegar is available at Fante’s, 1006 S. Ninth St. Call 922-5557 and ask for Joe.