I was making a Mediterranean-inspired baked chicken dish last night, the recipe for which calls for lemon juice. Maybe you recall, about a month ago I discovered that my jug of lemon juice no longer looked or smelled quite right, so it was allocated to cleaning supplies. I have yet to replace that jug.
So, thinking about pie recipes which were flavored with vinegar in the olden days, I thought maybe a variation on the vinegar would work in this recipe. I went online and found that yes, indeed, vinegar is used as a substitute for lemon juice in some instances. The cooks which suggested this often suggested half as much vinegar as a recipe would call for in lemon juice. that sounded a bit strong for me, so I went with about 1/4 to 1/3 of the amount of an herb vinegar, than what I would have used in lemon juice. This particular herb vinegar was made last summer using rosemary from my garden. The flavor was compatible with the other flavors in the dish that I was making.
The result -- it worked well. I did not taste like lemon, but it had that nice tang that lemon juice will give to a dish. In a pinch, this did work. Other substitutions which were offered for lemon juice included lime juice (of course), white wine, orange juice, and sherry. I also think that unsweetened, white grape juice might make a good substitution for lemon juice. The choice of any of these would depend on the type of dish one was modifying. And it helps to keep in mind that you are essentially creating a new dish, with new flavors, and not simply replicating the old one.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the vinegar substitution worked in the marinade for the baked chicken and the subsequent gravy.
