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Anite Vinegar

A vinegar infused with anise, caraway, fennel, and coriander seeds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Anise and fennel share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 47 recipes. Both carry cis-anethole, which smells anise. The science ↓

Anite Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind anise seed, caraway seed, fennel seed, and coriander seed into a coarse powder.

Infuse

  1. Pour alcohol and strong vinegar over the powders.

  2. Seal the vessel tightly and let it sit in a warm place for 6 to 8 days, shaking frequently.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the liquid, press out the residue, filter the vinegar, and bottle 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. Anise + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  2. Anise + carawaytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Fennel + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Anise + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Caraway + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Anise seed
Provides the characteristic licorice-like aroma that flavors the vinegar.
Caraway seed
Adds a warm, earthy aroma that rounds out the spice blend.
Strong vinegar
Acts as the main solvent, extracting flavor from the ground spices and adding acidity.
Alcohol
Helps extract aromatic compounds from the seeds alongside the vinegar.

The step that matters

Sealing and warm infusion. The vessel must be sealed tightly so alcohol and aromatic compounds do not evaporate during the 6 to 8 day steep. Shaking frequently keeps the powder in contact with the liquid, so extraction is even and the flavor develops fully.

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anise, fennel, coriander, vinegar):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against anise, fennel, coriander, vinegar. 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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