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Spiced Vinegar

A vinegar infused with sugar and spices, used for pickles and sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spices

  1. Mix the spices together.

  2. Place the mixed spices in small bags made of thin but strong muslin.

  3. Lay the bags in a three‑gallon stone crock with a small mouth.

Steep

  1. Fill the crock with the best cider vinegar.

  2. Keep the crock closely covered.

Use

  1. Use the spiced vinegar for pickles and sauces.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and the warm spices.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that carries the spice flavours and helps preserve the liquid.
Cloves
Contributes a strong, warm aroma that infuses into the vinegar.
Allspice
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that blends several spice notes together.
Turmeric
Gives the vinegar its yellow colour and an earthy flavour.
Ground mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that complements the acidity.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, pepper, allspice, turmeric, celery, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, pepper, allspice, turmeric, celery, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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