Skip to main content
Dessert

Strawberry Vinegar

A syrup made by infusing strawberries in vinegar, then sweetening and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Strawberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the vinegar

  1. Place fresh, ripe strawberries in a jar.

  2. Add 1½ pints of fine, pale white-wine vinegar for each pound of strawberries.

  3. Cover the jar with thick paper.

  4. Let it sit for 3 to 4 days.

  5. Drain the vinegar.

  6. Pour the vinegar over 4 pounds of fresh strawberries.

  7. After 3 days, drain the mixture again.

  8. Repeat the process with fresh strawberries.

Make the syrup

  1. After the final draining, add 1 pound of refined sugar for each pint of vinegar.

  2. Stir the mixture over heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.

  3. Skim the syrup.

  4. Pour it into a pitcher.

  5. Cover until the next day.

Bottle and use

  1. Bottle the syrup.

  2. Cork it loosely for the first few days.

  3. Use a few spoonfuls in a glass of water.

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

Strawberries
Supply the main fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar draws out.
Vinegar
Extracts the strawberry flavour and gives the syrup its acidity.
Refined sugar
Sweetens the vinegar and thickens it into a syrup when dissolved with heat.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture over heat until the sugar dissolves. Sugar must fully dissolve so the syrup stays clear and smooth. Heating only until dissolved avoids over-reducing, which would make the syrup too thick and sharp in flavour.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes