Name: Raspberry Vinegar and Water
Ingredients: 3 quarts raspberries; 1 quart vinegar; 2 pounds sugar; water

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 ↓

Raspberry Vinegar and Water

Ingredients

3 quarts raspberries
1 quart vinegar
2 pounds sugar
water

Directions

Make the vinegar

Squeeze the juice from the raspberries into a quart of vinegar.
Simmer the mixture for about 15 minutes in an unglazed earthen pipkin.
Allow the mixture to cool, then cork it.

Serve

Add a small spoonful of the raspberry vinegar to a glass of water to serve.

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.

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

Raspberries: Provide the fruit juice that gives the vinegar its flavour and colour.
Vinegar: Extracts and preserves the raspberry flavour, giving the syrup its sharp acidity.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

“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.