Why it works: Shallot and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,374 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Shallot Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and mince the shallots.
Put them into a bottle and pour over the pickling vinegar.
Infuse and bottle
Let the mixture infuse for 10 days, shaking the bottle daily.
Strain and filter the vinegar.
Bottle it in small bottles, cork securely, and store for use.
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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Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,374 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
- Shallots
- Supply the aromatic onion-like flavour that infuses into the vinegar.
- Pickling vinegar
- Acts as the liquid base that extracts and carries the shallot flavour.
The step that matters
Infusing for 10 days with daily shaking. Flavour moves from the shallots into the vinegar slowly, and shaking keeps the shallot pieces in contact with the liquid. Skipping days or stopping early leaves the vinegar weakly flavoured.
“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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