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Aromatic Vinegar

A vinegar infused with dried rosemary, rue, wormwood, sage, mint, lavender, nutmeg, cloves, angelica root, camphor, alcohol, and acetic acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Rosemary and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry 1,8-cineol, which smells eucalyptus, camphor. The science ↓

Aromatic Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Combine the dried herbs and spices in a jar.

  2. Pour in the rectified alcohol and let it macerate for one day.

  3. After a day, add the concentrated acetic acid.

  4. Allow the mixture to digest for one week at a temperature of 57-59°F (14-15°C).

Finish the vinegar

  1. Press out the aromatized liquid and filter it.

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. Rosemary + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Sage + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

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

  4. Rosemary + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Rosemary + angelicatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried rosemary
Adds a resinous, piney aroma that carries into the vinegar.
Concentrated acetic acid
Provides the sharp acidity and acts as the solvent that draws out flavour from the herbs.
Rectified alcohol
Dissolves aromatic compounds from the herbs and spices that water alone would extract poorly.
Lavender flowers
Contributes a floral aroma to the finished liquid.
Bruised nutmeg
Releases warm, sweet spice aroma during maceration.
Bruised cloves
Adds warm, pungent spice aroma during maceration.

The step that matters

Keep the digestion cool and steady. Aromatic compounds are extracted slowly and unevenly, and heat speeds extraction and can drive off volatile aromas, so holding the mixture at the stated cool temperature for the full week gives a balanced result.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rosemary, sage, lavender, nutmeg, clove, angelica, camphor):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rosemary, sage, lavender, nutmeg, clove, angelica, camphor. 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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