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Spiced Vinegar

A vinegar infused with peppercorns, ginger, chile, garlic, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,402 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spiced Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced infusion

  1. In a pot, combine half of the malt vinegar with black peppercorns, sliced ginger, dried chile, and sliced garlic.

  2. Boil gently for 30 minutes, then strain through a sieve.

Finish and cool

  1. Add the remaining malt vinegar to the strained spices, then strain again.

  2. Add coarse sea salt and water to the leftover spices.

  3. Boil for another 30 minutes, then remove from heat.

  4. Add 1 pint of vinegar.

  5. Strain into the spiced vinegar.

  6. Allow to cool completely before using.

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. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Malt + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together365 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Malt + gingertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Malt vinegar
Provides the sharp acidic base that carries the spice flavours.
Black peppercorns
Adds pungent, warm heat that develops as the spices steep.
Ginger
Adds fresh, warm aroma and a gentle bite.
Dried chile
Adds lingering heat to the finished vinegar.
Garlic
Adds savoury pungency that mellows during boiling.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 30 minutes. A gentle simmer extracts flavour from the spices while limiting evaporation of the vinegar. A hard, rapid boil can concentrate harsh, bitter notes and change the balance of the infusion.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (malt, vinegar, garlic):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against malt, vinegar, garlic. 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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