How to Make Food Taste Better: Acid Sounds Bad, Tastes Great

Say “acid” and most of us picture a chemistry lab, or a post warning that acidic foods are bad for you. Yet the ketchup on the fries, the pickles on the burger and the lemon on the fish are all acids, and they’re a big part of why that food tastes so good. Most of us have never thought to call them that, or to reach for one when dinner tastes flat.

Quick answer: Acid sounds harsh, but the tang in lemons, vinegar and yogurt is the simplest answer to how to make food taste better, as long as you match it to the food. Squeeze lemon or lime over fish, chicken and vegetables right before serving. Stir a teaspoon of vinegar into soup or stew at the end, or drizzle balsamic on roasted vegetables. Use yogurt as a gentle marinade for chicken.

Jump to: nine finishing touches to try this week

“Acid” sounds scary. In the kitchen, it isn’t.

If the word “acid” makes you think of goggles and a chemistry lab, you’re in good company. Even Samin Nosrat, the chef who wrote Salt Fat Acid Heat, has said the word sounds clinical.¹ Add the posts in your feed calling acidic foods bad for you, and the words “citric acid” printed on so many labels in the pantry, and it’s easy to see why acid sounds like a thing to keep away from. Each of those worries gets a lot smaller up close.

“Acid burns.” That’s the picture the word paints, thanks to the bottles locked up in a school chemistry lab. The acids in your kitchen are the opposite of scary. They’re the bright, mouth-watering tang in food you already love: the squeeze of lemon that makes a piece of fish taste bright and fresh, the splash of vinegar that turns shredded cabbage into crunchy slaw, the lime that makes a bowl of guacamole pop, the cold dill pickle next to a sandwich. A squeeze or a splash is usually all a dish needs.²

“Acidic food is bad for you.” If you’ve ever scrolled past a chart sorting foods into “acidic” and “alkaline,” this is where that worry comes from. The alkaline diet promises that the right foods will shift your body’s pH, the scale that measures how acidic a food or a drink is. Here’s the reassuring part: your body doesn’t let that happen. Your lungs and kidneys keep your blood inside a narrow pH range all day long, and nothing on your plate changes it.³ The diet does get one thing right, almost by accident. Most versions tell you to eat more vegetables, fruits and beans and to cut back on added sugar and processed foods, and an MD Anderson Cancer Center dietitian calls that solid advice with real health benefits. Those benefits come from the food itself, though, not from any change in your pH. The strictest versions go further and cut out certain fruits, vegetables and most grains, which can leave people short on vitamins and minerals.⁴ So the lemon over your salad isn’t working against you. It’s part of exactly the kind of eating the diet’s best advice points toward.

“Citric acid on the label sounds like a chemical.” If you read labels, you’ve probably spotted citric acid on label after label in the pantry: salsa, canned tomatoes, cheese, snacks, drinks. It turns up in more than 100,000 products in the U.S. It sounds like it came from a lab, but citric acid is the sunny, tart flavor at the heart of every lemon and lime. It’s found naturally in plants, and your own body even makes some as part of its everyday work.⁵ Food makers add it for the same reasons you’d add a squeeze of lemon: a little tang, a brighter flavor and help keeping the food fresh. They get it from citrus or make it by fermentation, and the FDA lists it among ingredients generally recognized as safe.⁵ So when you see it on a label, picture a lemon.

“Acid is hard on teeth.” It’s a fair question, and the dentists’ answer is good news for anyone who cooks. The American Dental Association’s advice on acidic foods like tomatoes and citrus is about when: enjoy them as part of a meal, not by themselves. A meal gives your mouth backup. Saliva keeps acids in check, and dairy, like a glass of milk or a bite of cheese, helps balance them too, so the tomato sauce on the spaghetti or the lemon over the salmon arrives with plenty of help around it. The drinks the ADA asks families to go easy on are soda and sports drinks, with juice and lemonade as an occasional treat rather than a daily habit.⁶ A squeeze of lemon on dinner fits that with-a-meal advice.

With the scary parts set aside, you’ll start spotting acid everywhere, including a few places you’d never have guessed.

Acid is all over your kitchen

Here’s a game for tonight: walk around your kitchen and count every acid you can find. You’ll be surprised how fast the number climbs.

Start with the fruit bowl, because much of it is acidic. Apples, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, oranges and pineapple all test as high-acid foods, below the 4.6 mark on the pH scale that food scientists use, and lemons and limes sit near the very bottom of it.⁷⁸ Tomatoes hover right around the line. The bright, tangy part of a ripe strawberry or a crisp apple, the part that keeps it from tasting like plain sugar, is acid at work.

Then open the fridge. The tang in yogurt comes from its cultures: by law, yogurt is made with bacteria that produce lactic acid, and it has to finish at a pH of 4.6 or lower.⁹ Sour cream gets its tang the same way. Pickles and sauerkraut are acidic too, and so is the whole door of bottles. Ketchup is made with tomatoes and vinegar, mayonnaise is made with vinegar or lemon juice, and in a University of Wisconsin test, mustard and sweet pickle relish came out even more acidic than the ketchup.¹⁰¹¹⁸ Most salsas and hot sauces get their kick partly from lime or vinegar as well.

The pantry finishes the count: a bottle of white vinegar, maybe apple cider or balsamic, a can of tomatoes, a jar of mustard. That tang does a second job, too: it helps keep those bottles safe. In the same Wisconsin lab test, Salmonella added to mustard and relish on purpose died within an hour, and the acid is a big part of why.⁸ The bottles still belong in the fridge after opening, for quality.

So your family already eats acid every day, at almost every meal: on the fries, inside the sandwich, in the lunchbox apple and on Friday’s pizza. The only difference between all of that and Tuesday’s soup is that somebody added the acid on purpose. You can do the same thing at home.

So what does that splash of acid actually do to a dish?

How acid makes food taste better

You’ve tasted what acid does even if you’ve never called it that: it’s why fish comes with a lemon wedge and fries come with ketchup. Your tongue picks up five tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (oo-MAH-mee), the savory one), and acid is the sour one.¹² Samin Nosrat describes it as a second taste for the first one to bounce off: salty against tart, sweet against tart, rich against tart. When a dish has that balance, the other flavors come through. When it doesn’t, the food falls flat.¹

That’s why a pot of soup can have plenty of salt, follow the recipe to the letter and still taste dull. Nothing went wrong. It’s missing its second taste. You can test it before dinner tonight: ladle a little soup into two cups, stir a few drops of lemon juice into one, and taste them side by side. You may not be able to say exactly what changed, only that the second cup tastes brighter, more like itself.

Each kind of acid has the foods it does best with, so here’s where to reach for which one.

The squeeze that saves the fish (and the green beans)

Fish, chicken and vegetables are where lemon does its best work, and a squeeze of lemon or lime is what the American Heart Association suggests trying before salt when a dish needs a boost.¹³ Squeeze it on right before serving, so it tastes fresh. Timing matters even more with anything green: acid dulls bright greens, so dress the salad and squeeze the lemon over the green beans or spinach at the last moment.¹⁴

Lime fits the foods it grew up with, like salsa, guacamole, tacos and a bowl of cut mango or watermelon. Orange is the sweetest of the three, a good way in for anyone who finds lemon too sharp. For flavor without much tartness, grate the zest, the colored outer layer of the peel, over rice, vegetables or a muffin batter. Fresh citrus tastes brightest, and it keeps longest in the fridge, so buy what you’ll use in the next week or two.

Vinegar, the pantry’s quiet fixer

Vinegar is the acid that waits patiently in the pantry for months, and it works on a whole pot at once. A teaspoon might be all a soup, sauce or stew needs. Stirred in at the end, its tang stays bright; added early, it softens and blends into the background.² A splash at the end does the same for a pot of beans, which is why our black bean recipes finish the Cuban-style beans and rice with one.

If you’ve got more than one bottle in the pantry, each one has its own jobs:²

Vinegar	What it tastes like	Where it shines
Red wine	Bold, a little fruity	Salad dressings, pan sauces, braised meats, hearty greens
Apple cider	Fruity, tangy, a little sweet	Dressings and marinades
Balsamic	Sweet and rich, with a tangy bite	Roasted vegetables, berries, glazes
Rice	Mild and a little sweet	Stir-fries, dipping sauces, quick pickles
White wine	Milder than red, lightly fruity	Fish, light dressings
White distilled	Sharp and plain	Pickling

When in doubt, match the vinegar to the food’s home kitchen: rice vinegar for a stir-fry, red wine vinegar for an Italian-style salad.² The trade-off is strength. Vinegar is strong, so it goes in by the teaspoon, never the glug.²

The creamy acids: yogurt and sour cream

Yogurt and sour cream bring a mild tang and creaminess at the same time, so they’re the ones to reach for when lemon or vinegar would be too sharp. Yogurt makes an especially good marinade for chicken: its lactic acid softens the meat without turning it mushy the way a strongly acidic marinade can, and the thick yogurt holds the spices against the chicken while it waits.¹⁵ A spoonful of plain yogurt or sour cream on top of chili, a bowl of soup or a plate of tacos adds the same cool tang at the table. The one catch is heat: stir yogurt into a hot pot off the burner, so it stays smooth.

The no-work acids: salsa, pickles and mustard

Some of your best acids come already finished. A spoonful of salsa on scrambled eggs, a few pickles tucked into a sandwich, or a teaspoon of mustard whisked into a dressing all bring acid and seasoning in one move, and mustard helps oil and vinegar hold together in a dressing, too.² These are the easiest ones to try tonight, because they’re probably already in the fridge door.

Knowing which acid to grab is half of it. The other half is knowing when.

When to add it, and how much

The best time to add acid is usually the last minute, right before the food goes on the table. That’s when its tang stays brightest; stirred in early, it mellows into the background of the dish.² The exceptions are the foods where acid is part of the base from the start, like marinades, dressings, pickles and tomato sauce.

How much is easier than it sounds, because you find it by tasting:

1. Taste first, so you know where the dish starts.
2. Add a little. Start with a squeeze of lemon or about half a teaspoon of vinegar for a family-size pot.
3. Stir and taste again.
4. Stop when it tastes brighter, before it tastes sour. It’s easier to add one more squeeze than to take one back.

If you go too far, there’s an easy way back. A dish that turned too tart comes back with a pinch of sugar, or a little cream or olive oil.² The opposite works too: if a dish tastes too sweet, a little lemon juice or a pinch of salt tones it down.¹⁶ Two other quick dials help acid do its work: salt added a little at a time as you cook, and a little fat, like butter, olive oil or cheese, which carries the flavor around the plate. A crunchy topping, like toasted breadcrumbs or crushed tortilla chips, finishes the job.

If you’re cooking with less salt for your family, acid is a good friend to have. The American Heart Association suggests tasting before you salt, then trying a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime first if a dish needs a boost, and it lists citrus juices and vinegars among the flavors that can stand in for some, or all, of the salt.¹³ The salt shaker isn’t where most of it comes from anyway. A CDC report on children ages 6 to 18 found that most of the sodium they ate was already in the food before it was bought or ordered.¹⁷

Tasting before and after is the whole skill, and it happens to be a job kids are surprisingly good at.

Why kids make great taste testers

You might expect tart flavors to be a hard sell with kids. For a lot of kids, it’s the other way around. When 5- to 9-year-olds and their mothers tasted spoonfuls of gelatin, some mild and some very sour, and picked a favorite, more than a third of the kids, and almost none of the moms, chose the sourest one. Those kids said the same about lemons and sour candies, and they were more open to trying new foods, too.¹⁸ So the one at your table who grabs the pickle spear first, or asks for extra lime on the mango, may turn out to be your best kitchen helper.

That makes acid one of the easiest ways to bring kids into the kitchen. Here are a few ways to start:

1. The before-and-after spoon. Give them two tastes of the same dish, one with a squeeze of lemon, and ask “what changed?” instead of “do you like it?” There’s no wrong answer, only better words for what they taste.
2. The acid hunt. Send them around the kitchen to find ten acids. The fruit bowl, the fridge door and the pantry from earlier make it a short hunt, and a fun surprise when the ketchup counts.
3. The five-tastes plate. Put out a lemon wedge (sour), a pretzel (salty), a thin apple slice (sweet), a little unsweetened cocoa or a leaf of arugula (bitter) and a piece of Parmesan (savory), and let everyone name and rank them.¹²
4. A job for every age. Toddlers can squeeze a halved orange over a bowl of fruit with both hands. School-age kids can squeeze lemons, shake the dressing jar and grate zest with a grown-up guiding the grater. Teens can taste the pot and make the call: “needs lemon?”

If the kitchen needs a soundtrack, “Homegrown Hustle” is one of the cucumber songs in NutraBeats, our library of 400-plus food songs for kids, and it fits a kitchen full of pickles:

Homegrown Hustle

When the tasting gets everyone talking, our free Family Mealtime Toolkit keeps it going at the table, with three days of family meals and questions for everyone to answer.

Here are nine places to put your new taste testers to work.

Nine finishing touches to try this week

Whatever’s on the stove tonight, one of these nine probably fits it, on top of the dish or right next to it. Most take about ten minutes of hands-on time, and they’re grouped by the acid, so you can start with the one already in your kitchen.

Squeeze: lemon and lime

Lemon-garlic green beans

Tender-crisp green beans tossed with garlic, then finished with lemon right before they hit the table, so they stay bright green and taste bright too.

Brightens: any dinner that needs a green side · Time: 15 minutes · Makes: 4 to 6 side servings

You need

• 1 pound green beans, ends trimmed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ lemon (zest and juice)

Steps

1. Boil or steam the beans 4 to 6 minutes, until tender but still a little crisp, then drain.
2. Warm the oil in a large pan, add the garlic for about a minute, then toss in the beans and salt.
3. Take the pan off the heat. Grate the zest over the top and squeeze the lemon on right before serving, since acid dulls the green the longer it sits.¹⁴

Toddler version: cook a handful of beans a few minutes longer until soft, and cut them into small pieces.

Who does what: a toddler snaps the ends off the beans, an older kid grates the zest with a grown-up guiding the grater, and a teen tastes one and decides if it needs more lemon.

Lemon-butter baked fish

Mild white fish baked with butter and lemon zest, with fresh lemon squeezed on at the table. Fish is one of the first foods the American Heart Association names for a squeeze of lemon.¹³

Brightens: a fish dinner · Time: 20 minutes · Makes: 4 servings

You need

• 4 white fish fillets, such as cod or tilapia (about 1½ pounds)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 lemon (zest, then cut into wedges)
• ¼ teaspoon salt and a pinch of black pepper
• A pinch of paprika (optional)

Steps

1. Set the oven to 400°F and lay the fish in a baking dish.
2. Stir the lemon zest, salt and pepper into the melted butter and brush it over the fish. Sprinkle with paprika.
3. Bake 10 to 14 minutes, until the fish reaches 145°F, or flakes easily with a fork and is no longer see-through in the middle.¹⁹
4. Serve with lemon wedges for everyone to squeeze their own.

Toddler version: flake the fish into small pieces and check carefully for bones.

Who does what: a toddler sprinkles the paprika, an older kid brushes on the butter, and a teen checks the temperature and calls it done.

Chili-lime fruit cups

Cut fruit and cucumber with fresh lime and a pinch of salt, plus a shake of mild chili-lime seasoning for anyone who wants it. Sweet, tart and salty in one bite.

Brightens: an after-school snack or a dessert after dinner · Time: 10 minutes · Makes: 4 cups

You need

• 3 to 4 cups cut fruit: mango, watermelon, pineapple
• 1 cucumber, cut into sticks
• Juice of 1 lime
• A small pinch of salt
• Mild chili-lime seasoning, to taste (optional)

Steps

1. Divide the fruit and cucumber among cups.
2. Squeeze lime over each one and add a tiny pinch of salt.
3. Let everyone shake on as much chili-lime seasoning as they like.

Toddler version: cut the fruit into small, soft pieces, skip the seasoning, and serve the cucumber peeled and cut into thin sticks or small, thin pieces.

Who does what: a toddler drops the fruit into the cups, a school-age kid juices the lime, and a teen sets up the seasoning bar.

Splash: vinegar

Quick-pickled red onions

Thin red onion slices that turn bright pink and mellow in a warm vinegar bath. A spoonful on top makes tacos, burgers, eggs and rice bowls taste finished.

Brightens: tacos, burgers, sandwiches, grain bowls, eggs · Time: 10 minutes, plus 30 minutes to sit · Makes: about 1½ cups

You need

• 1 red onion, sliced very thin
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar (5 percent acidity, as it says on the label)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Steps

1. Pack the onion slices into a clean glass jar.
2. Warm the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pot, stirring until they dissolve, and pour it over the onions.
3. Let the jar sit 30 minutes, until the onions turn pink, then cover it and refrigerate.
4. Keep them in the fridge at 40°F or colder and eat them within 2 weeks. These are a fridge pickle, not canned, so they always stay cold.²⁰

Toddler version: chop a few onion pieces very small and stir them into scrambled eggs or rice, where they taste mild.

Who does what: a toddler watches the onions turn pink, an older kid stirs the sugar until it disappears, and a teen slices the onion with a sharp knife and a grown-up nearby.

Shake-in-a-jar dressing

Three parts oil to one part vinegar, plus a little mustard to hold it together. Once you’ve made it, the bottled kind starts to look optional.²

Brightens: salads, grain bowls, roasted vegetables, a cold pasta salad · Time: 5 minutes · Makes: about ⅓ cup

You need

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• A pinch of salt and pepper

Steps

1. Put everything in a small jar and screw the lid on tight.
2. Shake hard for 20 seconds.
3. Taste on a leaf of lettuce, and add a little more vinegar or a little more oil until it tastes right to you.
4. Dress the salad right before it goes on the table.¹⁴ Keep the rest in the fridge; olive oil firms up when it’s cold, so let the jar sit out a few minutes and shake again.

Toddler version: toss a spoonful with soft cooked pasta or small pieces of cooked vegetables.

Who does what: a toddler does the shaking (lid on tight), an older kid measures, and a teen tastes and adjusts.

Balsamic strawberries

Sliced strawberries with a spoonful of balsamic and a little sugar. Balsamic and berries are a classic pair, and the sweet-tart mix is the surprise everyone at the table gets to discover.²

Brightens: dessert, or plain yogurt at breakfast · Time: 10 minutes, plus 15 minutes to sit · Makes: 4 servings

You need

• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
• A tiny pinch of black pepper (optional, for the adventurous)

Steps

1. Toss the berries with the balsamic and sugar.
2. Let them sit 15 minutes, until they’re glossy and juicy.
3. Spoon over yogurt, ice cream or pound cake.

Toddler version: cut the berries into small pieces and serve them over plain yogurt.

Who does what: a toddler pulls off the green tops, an older kid stirs, and a teen decides who’s brave enough for the pepper.

Spoon: yogurt and salsa

Yogurt-marinated chicken

Chicken thighs soaked in plain yogurt, lemon, garlic and warm spices, then baked until golden. The yogurt’s gentle acid keeps the chicken tender, and the thick marinade holds the spices on.¹⁵

Brightens: dinner, and the next day’s wraps · Time: 15 minutes, plus at least 1 hour in the fridge and 25 minutes in the oven · Makes: 4 or 5 servings

You need

• 1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• ¾ cup plain yogurt
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 teaspoon paprika and 1 teaspoon cumin
• ¾ teaspoon salt

Steps

1. Stir everything but the chicken together in a glass dish or a food-grade plastic bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat.
2. Cover and marinate in the fridge, never on the counter, for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.²¹
3. Heat the oven to 425°F. Lift the chicken out, let the extra marinade drip off, and lay it on a lined sheet pan. Throw the used marinade away.
4. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the thickest piece reaches 165°F.¹⁹

Toddler version: cut the cooked chicken into small, thin pieces and serve it with a spoon of the lemon-yogurt dip.

Who does what: a toddler stirs the yogurt and spices before the chicken goes in, an older kid squeezes the lemon, and a teen handles the raw chicken, washes up and checks the temperature.

Lemon-yogurt dip

Thick yogurt with lemon, garlic and herbs. It’s a dip for vegetables and pita, a sauce for chicken or fish, and a cool spoonful next to anything spicy.

Brightens: snack time, or a plate of chicken, fish or roasted vegetables · Time: 5 minutes · Makes: about 1 cup

You need

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• Zest and juice of ½ lemon
• 1 small garlic clove, grated, or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or chives (optional)

Steps

1. Stir everything together.
2. Taste, and add more lemon or salt until it tastes right.
3. Keep it covered in the fridge and serve it cold.

Toddler version: serve it with soft-cooked carrot sticks, strips of soft pita or small pieces of cooked chicken for dipping.

Who does what: a toddler stirs, an older kid zests and squeezes the lemon, and a teen picks the herbs.

Fresh tomato salsa

Chopped tomatoes, onion, cilantro and lime: two acids in one bowl. It brightens eggs, tacos, grilled chicken and a plate of chips.

Brightens: breakfast eggs, taco night, grilled chicken, rice and beans · Time: 10 minutes · Makes: about 2 cups

You need

• 3 ripe tomatoes, diced
• ¼ small onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ jalapeño, seeded and minced (optional)

Steps

1. Stir everything together in a bowl.
2. Let it sit 10 minutes so the lime and salt pull the juice out of the tomatoes.
3. Give it a taste: more lime if it’s flat, a pinch more salt if it’s dull. Covered in the fridge, it’s best within a day or two, while the tomatoes are fresh.

Toddler version: chop it very fine, skip the jalapeño, and spoon a little over scrambled eggs.

Who does what: a toddler picks the cilantro leaves for the bowl, an older kid presses and rolls the lime before juicing it, and a teen does the chopping.

Every one of these is a small change to a dinner you already make, which is the point. Our free resources page has more family-friendly printables for the kitchen, including a taste test tracker for keeping score of the new favorites.

A few questions tend to come up once the lemon comes out.

Questions about how to make food taste better with acid

Is cooking with acid safe for kids?

Yes. Food acids are part of everyday foods kids already eat, like fruit, yogurt, tomatoes, pickles and ketchup, and adding a squeeze to dinner keeps them where dentists like them, with a meal.⁷⁶ If you have questions about your own child’s diet, ask your pediatrician.

Can lemon replace salt?

Partly. The American Heart Association lists citrus juices and vinegars among the flavors that can replace some, or all, of the salt, and suggests tasting before you salt and trying a squeeze of lemon or lime first.¹³ Many dishes still taste best with a little salt and a little acid together.

Is bottled lemon juice OK?

For cooking, yes. Fresh lemon has more aroma and tastes brighter, and zest only comes from the fruit itself, so use fresh when the lemon is the star and bottled when it’s one ingredient among many.

How do I fix food that's too tart?

Add a pinch of sugar, or a little cream or olive oil, and taste again.² Adding more of the dish itself, like more broth or more rice, also spreads the tartness out.

Does acid react with my pans?

A quick squeeze or splash at the end is fine in any pan. Long-simmered acidic food is where cast iron can pick up a metallic taste: in America’s Test Kitchen’s test, tomato sauce tasted fine after 15 minutes in cast iron and metallic by 30 minutes, and much more so in an unseasoned pan.²² Use a stainless steel or enameled pot for a long-simmering tomato sauce.

Acid sounds bad, tastes great

Acid turned out to be one of the friendliest words in the kitchen. It’s the lemon in the fruit bowl, the vinegar by the stove, the yogurt in the fridge and the ketchup your family already loves, and now you know how to use it on purpose. The next time a pot tastes fine but flat, taste it, brighten it, taste it again, and let a kid make the call (“needs lemon!”). That curiosity about what’s inside our food is what NutraPlanet is built on. Our free Gazette issue gives one food its own comic, story and songs, and the Gazette library has all 11 finished issues when your family wants more. Put on “Homegrown Hustle” while you cook, and see who asks how a cucumber turns into a pickle.

Every family is different, so if you have questions about what you or your kids should eat, your pediatrician or a registered dietitian is the best person to ask.

Footnotes

1. The Splendid Table: Samin Nosrat on mastering salt, fat, acid and heat ↩ ↩²

2. Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts: A Guide to Cooking with Vinegar ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. Cleveland Clinic: What Is the Alkaline Diet, and Is It Safe? ↩

4. MD Anderson Cancer Center on the alkaline diet ↩

5. Center for Science in the Public Interest: Citric acid ↩ ↩²

6. American Dental Association, MouthHealthy: Dietary Acids and Your Teeth ↩ ↩²

7. Clemson Cooperative Extension: pH Values of Common Foods and Ingredients ↩ ↩²

8. University of Wisconsin Extension: What’s Up with Condiments? ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. eCFR: 21 CFR 131.200 Yogurt ↩

10. eCFR: 21 CFR 155.194 Catsup ↩

11. eCFR: 21 CFR 169.140 Mayonnaise ↩

12. American Heart Association: Understanding Tastes and Food Flavors ↩ ↩²

13. American Heart Association: How to Reduce Sodium in Your Diet ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

14. Samin Nosrat, Salt Fat Acid Heat, quoted at Quotefancy ↩ ↩² ↩³

15. Milk Street: Let Yogurt Go to Work ↩ ↩²

16. Mayo Clinic: Tips to make food tastier ↩

17. CDC: Sodium consumption high among U.S. children (2014 Vital Signs, 2009-2010 data) ↩

18. Liem and Mennella 2003: Heightened sour preferences during childhood ↩

19. FoodSafety.gov: Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart ↩ ↩²

20. University of Wisconsin Extension: Homemade Pickles and Relishes ↩

21. USDA FSIS: Poultry, Basting, Brining, and Marinating ↩

22. America’s Test Kitchen: Can You Cook Acidic Ingredients in Cast Iron? ↩