Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Strawberry Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse the vinegar
Place fresh, ripe strawberries in a jar, adding 1½ pints of white wine vinegar for each pound of berries.
Cover the jar with thick paper and let it sit for 3 to 4 days.
Drain the vinegar and pour it over 4 pounds of fresh strawberries.
Let the mixture sit for 3 days.
Drain it again and repeat with fresh strawberries.
Make the syrup
After the final draining, add 1 pound of refined sugar for each pint of vinegar.
Stir the mixture over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.
Skim off any foam, pour the syrup into a pitcher, and cover it until the next day.
Bottle
Bottle the vinegar and cork it loosely for the first few days.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,776 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,586 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavor and aroma that the vinegar takes on during infusion.
- White wine vinegar
- Extracts flavor from the berries and gives the finished drink its sharp acidity.
- Refined sugar
- Sweetens the vinegar and balances its acidity.
The step that matters
Stir the sugar in over low heat. Gentle heat dissolves the sugar without scorching it or boiling off the delicate strawberry aroma; sugar dissolves more smoothly in warm liquid than cold.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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