Maple Vinegar substitute

Best substitute

Apple Cider Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup

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

Best for salad dressings

Close match

The best all-round match, because it rebuilds maple vinegar from exactly what it is: mild fruity acid plus maple sweetness. A vinaigrette or a pork glaze made this way tastes genuinely close. The apple note is there if you look for it, but maple is a loud enough flavour to sit on top of it.

Other maple vinegar substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2White Wine Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup
Close match
For every 1 tbsp maple vinegar: 1 tbsp white wine vinegar + ½ tsp maple syrup
Closer than cider vinegar on colour and clarity, and cleaner on the palate since there is no apple note competing with the maple.
What changes
It is slightly sharper than maple vinegar, so a delicate dressing comes out a touch more bracing. Add a few drops of water if it bites.
Best for
light salad dressings, fish and scallops, delicate pan sauces, cheese boards
Champagne vinegar is even better here if you have it, being naturally milder and closer to maple vinegar's gentle acidity.
3Apple Cider Vinegar On Its Own
Different taste
Use the same amount
Perfectly usable and what most people should do.
What changes
You lose the maple sweetness and the faintly woody, caramel-adjacent aroma, so a dressing on a kale and squash salad tastes brighter and more purely tart, missing the roundness that made it feel autumnal. Add any sweetener you have to close most of the gap.
Best for
dressings, slaws, marinades, braised greens and cabbage
Brown sugar, honey or date syrup all work in place of maple syrup here. Brown sugar is closest, because its molasses note is in the same family as maple.
4Unseasoned Rice Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup
Close match
For every 1 tbsp maple vinegar: 1 tbsp rice vinegar + ½ tsp maple syrup
Rice vinegar is the mildest common vinegar, which matches maple vinegar's gentleness better than almost anything else, and it has no fruit character to argue with the maple.
What changes
The result tastes soft, sweet-sour and slightly less complex, with none of the faint wine or apple background the real bottle has.
Best for
delicate dressings, roasted vegetables, glazed salmon, grain salads
Make sure it is unseasoned. Seasoned rice vinegar already has sugar in it, so cut the maple syrup to a quarter teaspoon.
5Balsamic Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup, When You Want Depth
Taste and texture differ
For every 1 tbsp maple vinegar: 2 tsp balsamic vinegar + 1 tsp water + ½ tsp maple syrup
A different dish rather than a substitution, and worth having on the list because it is delicious on roasted vegetables.
What changes
Balsamic is much darker and sweeter, so roasted carrots finished this way come out glossy, deep brown and jammy instead of pale gold and lightly tart. Do not use it anywhere the colour matters.
Best for
roasted root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, pork belly, grilled radicchio
The water is there because balsamic is thicker and sweeter than maple vinegar and needs loosening. Taste before adding all the maple syrup.
6Homemade Maple Vinegar Approximation
Close match
Simmer ¼ cup apple cider vinegar with 2 tbsp maple syrup for two minutes, cool
Better than any single-bottle swap if you have three minutes.
What changes
Warming the two together marries them properly instead of leaving the syrup as a separate sweet streak, and it thickens very slightly, which helps it cling to roasted vegetables and meat. Keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
Best for
glazes for pork, ham and chicken, roasted vegetables, drizzling and finishing, salad dressings made in batches
Do not boil it hard. Maple's aroma is delicate and driven off by aggressive heat, leaving you with plain sweetness. Treat the result as a flavouring, not a preserving vinegar.

What is Maple Vinegar?

Maple Vinegar is Maple vinegar is a pale golden, mildly sweet vinegar fermented from maple sap or maple syrup, sold by Canadian and New England producers as maple vinegar or vinaigre d'erable.

Cooking tips

Maple vinegar is doing two jobs: mild acid to cut fat and sweetness, and a distinctive woodsy-sweet aroma. Because maple is such a recognisable smell, keeping some actual maple syrup in your substitute matters far more than matching the exact vinegar underneath it.
It is milder than wine vinegars, so if you swap in something sharper, cut it with a little water. A tablespoon of white wine vinegar with a quarter teaspoon of water sits much closer to maple vinegar's strength than the vinegar alone.
Add it late. Maple aroma is volatile and long simmering leaves you with sourness and generic sweetness. On roasted vegetables, brush it on in the last five minutes rather than tossing at the start, where its sugars will burn.
It is a natural fit with pork, ham, squash, sweet potato, Brussels sprouts and anything smoked, all of which pair with maple already. In those dishes, prioritise the maple syrup in your substitute and worry less about the vinegar.
Never use maple vinegar or a homemade maple vinegar blend in place of the vinegar specified in a canning, pickling or fermenting recipe. Sweetened and artisan vinegars are frequently below the 5 percent acidity those recipes are tested at, and lowering acidity in preserved food is a botulism risk. Use exactly what the tested recipe names and see the National Center for Home Food Preservation for guidance.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave maple vinegar out?

If it is the acid in a dressing or the tang in a glaze, no, because the dish will taste sweet and heavy without anything to balance it. Substitute cider vinegar with a little maple syrup instead. If it is one flavouring among several in a marinade that already has mustard, citrus or wine, leaving it out is fine.

Is maple vinegar the same as maple syrup?

No. Maple syrup is boiled-down sap, thick and very sweet with no acidity. Maple vinegar is fermented sap or diluted syrup, thin and sour with only a faint sweetness left. You cannot use syrup where a recipe wants vinegar, or the dish will have no acid at all, which is precisely why the standard substitute combines a vinegar with a little syrup.

Can I make maple vinegar at home?

True maple vinegar takes months of fermentation, but you can make a very convincing stand-in in three minutes: gently warm 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 2 tablespoons maple syrup, then cool. Keep it in the fridge and use it within a couple of weeks. Treat it as a flavouring rather than a preserving vinegar, since you cannot measure its acidity.

What does maple vinegar taste like?

Mild and golden, gently sour with a soft sweetness and a faint woody, slightly caramel aroma that reads clearly as maple without being sugary. It is closer in strength to rice vinegar than to red wine vinegar, which is why recipes often use a generous amount of it.

What is the best substitute for a maple vinaigrette?

Apple cider vinegar with maple syrup, plus a small dab of Dijon mustard. The mustard is the part people forget: it emulsifies the dressing so it clings to leaves rather than separating, and its sharpness supports the maple in exactly the way maple vinegar's own body would have.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Maple Vinegar substitute

Other maple vinegar substitutes

2White Wine Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup

3Apple Cider Vinegar On Its Own

4Unseasoned Rice Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup

5Balsamic Vinegar Plus Maple Syrup, When You Want Depth

6Homemade Maple Vinegar Approximation