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Grape Vinegar

A sweetened vinegar made by fermenting grapes with cider vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Grape Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Pick over grapes and remove pulp from skins, placing firmly into a container.

  2. Add cider vinegar to grapes in a ratio of 1 quart per 3 quarts of grapes, mix well.

  3. Cover the mixture and stir thoroughly every day.

Extract and sweeten

  1. On the fourth day, press the mixture through a cloth to extract the juice.

  2. Add sugar to the juice in a ratio of 5 pounds per 3 quarts, boil until clear, skimming as needed.

  3. Simmer or boil slowly for 10 minutes, then bottle when cold.

Store

  1. Seal the bottles and store in a cool place.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Grape + cidertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Grape + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 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

Grapes
Provide the juice and flavour that form the base of the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that ferments and preserves the grape mixture while it steeps.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the juice and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling the juice with sugar until clear. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully and coagulates fine particles so they rise as scum. Skimming removes them, leaving a clear, stable syrup that keeps better in the bottle.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar. 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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