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Tarragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with tarragon leaves, cloves, and lemon rind, sun‑cured for at least two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill a stone jar or wide-mouthed glass bottle with tarragon leaves without pressing them down.

  2. Add cloves and lemon rind.

Infuse

  1. Fill the jar with vinegar, cork it well, and expose it to the sun for at least two weeks.

Strain and bottle

  1. After two weeks, strain the vinegar, squeezing it well out of the leaves, and filter it through paper if necessary.

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. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tarragon + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tarragon leaves
Supply the main aroma and flavour that the vinegar takes on during steeping.
Vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the leaves and rind over time.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma and oils that lift the tarragon flavour.
Cloves
Add a warm, spicy aroma to the infusion.

The step that matters

Fill the jar with vinegar and cork it well. Leaves must stay fully submerged and the jar sealed so the vinegar extracts flavour evenly and the infusion is not exposed to air contamination during the long steep.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, lemon, 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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