Why it works: Sugar and vinegar 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 ↓
Syrup of Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the sugar and vinegar together until it reduces to a syrup.
Bottle the syrup.
Mix with water to serve, optionally adding brandy.
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.
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, as it reduces, thickens the mixture into a syrup.
- Vinegar
- Provides sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the syrup its tang.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar and vinegar until reduced. Boiling drives off water so the mixture thickens into a syrup of stable consistency. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while over-reducing makes it overly thick and sticky once cooled.
“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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