Apple Balsamic Vinegar substitute

Best substitute

Apple Cider Vinegar Plus Honey Or Maple Syrup

For every 1 tbsp apple balsamic: 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar + ½ tsp honey or maple syrup

Best for salad dressings

Different texture

The best match, because it rebuilds both halves of what the bottle is: apple acidity plus concentrated sweetness. A vinaigrette made this way tastes genuinely like the real thing. It is thinner and less glossy, so it will not cling to roasted squash quite as well, but the flavour lands.

Other apple balsamic vinegar substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Half Balsamic, Half Apple Cider Vinegar
Close match
For every 1 tbsp apple balsamic: 1 ½ tsp balsamic vinegar + 1 ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
The most convincing swap when you care about body as well as flavour.
What changes
The balsamic brings the syrupy thickness and dark sweetness, the cider vinegar brings the apple. The result is noticeably darker than apple balsamic, so a pale salad dressing will look brown rather than amber, but on roasted vegetables or pork nobody notices.
Best for
glazes for pork and chicken, roasted vegetables, reduction sauces, drizzling
Use a thicker, sweeter supermarket balsamic. A thin, harsh one gives you sharpness without the body you are after.
3Regular Balsamic Vinegar
Different taste
Use the same amount
Perfectly workable and what most people should do rather than shopping specially.
What changes
You lose the apple note entirely and gain grape and raisin instead, so a roasted squash dish tastes richer and more Italian and less bright and orchard-like. Slightly sweeter than apple balsamic too, so cut any sugar in the recipe a little.
Best for
roasted vegetables, vinaigrettes, cheese boards, pan sauces
Nothing wrong with this swap. If you want to nudge it toward apple, add a teaspoon of apple juice or a small splash of cider vinegar.
4Apple Cider Vinegar Reduced With Apple Juice
Close match
Simmer ¼ cup apple juice with 2 tbsp cider vinegar down to about 2 tbsp
The best result if you have five minutes, and closer to the real bottle than anything you can buy.
What changes
Reducing apple juice concentrates its sugars into something genuinely syrupy and apple-forward, and the vinegar keeps it sour. This is what the commercial product essentially is.
Best for
glazes, drizzles and finishing, pork and duck, roasted squash and Brussels sprouts, cheese boards
Watch it near the end, it thickens fast and scorches. It will thicken further as it cools, so pull it off while it still coats a spoon loosely. Keep leftovers in the fridge and use within a couple of weeks.
5Sherry Vinegar Plus Honey
Taste and texture differ
For every 1 tbsp apple balsamic: 1 tbsp sherry vinegar + ½ tsp honey
A good option when the dish is savoury and the apple note is not essential.
What changes
Sherry vinegar has a nutty, slightly oxidised depth that reads more like a wine cellar than an orchard, so pork chops finished with it taste deeper and more savoury and less fruity-sweet.
Best for
pork, mushrooms, lentils and warm grain salads, hard cheeses
Sherry vinegar is sharper than cider vinegar, so taste as you go and be ready to add a little more honey.
6White Wine Vinegar Plus Brown Sugar
Taste and texture differ
For every 1 tbsp apple balsamic: 1 tbsp white wine vinegar + ½ tsp brown sugar
The bare-cupboard version.
What changes
It gets the sweet-sour proportions right but has no fruit character at all, so the dressing tastes clean and a bit generic rather than distinctive. The brown sugar's molasses note adds a hint of the depth apple balsamic has, which white sugar would not.
Best for
salad dressings, slaws, quick pan sauces, marinades
Warm the vinegar slightly to dissolve the sugar, or stir until you cannot feel grit on the spoon.

What is Apple Balsamic Vinegar?

Apple Balsamic Vinegar is Apple balsamic vinegar is a thick, sweet-tart vinegar made by concentrating apple juice or cider the way traditional balsamic concentrates grape must, sold as apple cider balsamic or apfelbalsamico and usually paler and fruitier than grape balsamic.

Cooking tips

Apple balsamic is doing three jobs: acidity to cut fat, sweetness to balance bitter or earthy vegetables, and enough body to cling to food instead of pooling on the plate. When you substitute, decide which of those matters most in your dish and prioritise it.
It is a natural partner for pork, and the reason is chemistry rather than tradition: pork is fatty and mildly sweet, and a sweet-sour apple acid cuts the fat while echoing the sweetness. Any substitute that keeps both sweet and sour will work in a pork recipe.
On roasted squash, sprouts or carrots, add it in the last five minutes of roasting rather than at the start. Its sugars burn quickly at roasting temperature and turn acrid, whereas a late drizzle glazes properly.
Do not reduce it hard in a pan expecting to concentrate it further. Commercial apple balsamic is already concentrated, and boiling it down again mostly drives off the volatile apple aroma and leaves harsh sourness.
Never use apple balsamic, or any sweetened or flavoured vinegar, in place of the vinegar specified in a canning or pickling recipe. Flavoured vinegars are frequently below the 5 percent acidity those recipes require, and reducing acidity in preserved food creates a botulism risk. Use the vinegar the tested recipe names and see the National Center for Home Food Preservation for guidance.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave apple balsamic vinegar out?

If it is a finishing drizzle on an already-seasoned dish, yes, though the dish will taste noticeably heavier without an acid to lift it. If it is the acid in a dressing or the glaze on roasted vegetables, do not omit it, because the recipe will taste flat and oily. Any vinegar plus a small pinch of sugar covers it.

Is apple balsamic vinegar the same as apple cider vinegar?

No. Apple cider vinegar is thin, sharp and unsweetened. Apple balsamic is thick, sweet and concentrated, made in the style of grape balsamic. That is why the standard substitution is cider vinegar plus a sweetener rather than cider vinegar on its own, which would come out far too sharp and far too thin.

Can I make apple balsamic vinegar at home?

You can make a close approximation. Simmer 1/2 cup apple juice or cider with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar until reduced by about two thirds and syrupy, then cool. That is roughly what the commercial product tastes like. Store it in the fridge and treat it as a flavouring, not as a preserving vinegar, because you do not know its final acidity.

What can I use in a salad dressing specifically?

Apple cider vinegar with half a teaspoon of honey per tablespoon, plus a small dab of Dijon mustard to hold the dressing together. The mustard matters more than the exact vinegar: it emulsifies the dressing so it clings to leaves instead of separating, which is part of what the thicker apple balsamic was doing for you.

Is it worth buying if I already own regular balsamic?

Only if you cook a lot of pork, squash and autumn vegetables, where the apple note genuinely suits the food better. For everything else, regular balsamic at 1:1 does the job, and a splash of cider vinegar alongside it gets you close enough that the separate bottle is a luxury rather than a necessity.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Apple Balsamic Vinegar substitute

Other apple balsamic vinegar substitutes

2Half Balsamic, Half Apple Cider Vinegar

3Regular Balsamic Vinegar

4Apple Cider Vinegar Reduced With Apple Juice

5Sherry Vinegar Plus Honey

6White Wine Vinegar Plus Brown Sugar