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Cider Vinegar

Vinegar made by fermenting hard cider with rye meal and whiskey in a cask left in the sun and air.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 402 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the vinegar

  1. Stir six quarts of rye meal well into a barrel of strong hard cider of the best kind.

  2. Add a gallon of whiskey.

  3. Cover the cask, leaving the bung loosely in it.

  4. Set the cask in the part of the yard most exposed to the sun and air.

  5. Leave for four weeks if the weather is warm and dry, until the vinegar is fit for use.

Replenish and finish

  1. When you draw off a gallon or more, replenish the cask with the same quantity of cider.

  2. Add about a pint of whiskey to the cask.

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cider + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together402 recipes

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

  2. Apple + cidertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Apple + honeytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together567 recipes

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

  4. Honey + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

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

  5. Honey + cidertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye meal
Provides starch and nutrients that feed the fermentation organisms.
Hard cider
Supplies the alcohol that acetic acid bacteria convert into vinegar.
Whiskey
Adds more alcohol for the bacteria to oxidise, supporting vinegar formation.

The step that matters

Leave the bung loosely in the cask. Acetic acid bacteria need oxygen to turn alcohol into acetic acid. A loose bung lets air in while keeping dust and insects out, so the fermentation can proceed.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

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

  1. Applethe original
  2. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against rye, pine, honey, cider, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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