Name: Vinegar for Salads
Ingredients: 3 ounces tarragon, dried and pounded; 3 ounces chives, dried and pounded; 3 ounces eschalots, dried and pounded; 3 ounces savoury, dried and pounded; a handful of balm tops, dried; a handful of mint tops, dried; 1 gallon best vinegar

Why it works: Tarragon and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 589 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vinegar for Salads

Ingredients

3 ounces tarragon, dried and pounded
3 ounces chives, dried and pounded
3 ounces eschalots, dried and pounded
3 ounces savoury, dried and pounded
a handful of balm tops, dried
a handful of mint tops, dried
1 gallon best vinegar

Directions

Infuse

Combine the dried herbs in a wide-mouthed bottle.
Pour in 1 gallon of vinegar and cork the bottle tightly.
Place the bottle in the sun for two weeks.

Strain and clarify

After two weeks, strain the mixture and press the herbs to extract all the juice.
Let the liquid sit for one day to settle, then strain it again through a filtering bag.

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.

Tarragon + chivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together589 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Tarragon + minttop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together125 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Chive + minttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together142 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Chive + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,065 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: Provides the main aromatic flavour that the vinegar takes up over time.
Chives: Adds a mild onion-like aroma and flavour to the infused vinegar.
Eschalots: Contributes a gentle savoury, onion-like sweetness to the vinegar.
Savoury: Adds a peppery, thyme-like aroma to the infusion.
Vinegar: Acts as the solvent that draws flavour and aroma out of the dried herbs.

The step that matters

Pressing and double straining. Pressing the herbs forces out the liquid they hold, and settling plus a second straining removes fine plant particles so the vinegar stays clear and does not turn cloudy or bitter.

Swap the mint

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

Capersfits better
Dillfits better
Parsleyfits better
Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, chive, 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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Vinegar for Salads