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Strawberry Vinegar

Strawberry vinegar made by infusing strawberries in white wine vinegar and sweetening with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,493 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Strawberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the strawberries

  1. Pick and weigh the strawberries, placing them in stone jars or wide‑mouthed glass bottles.

  2. Pour 1 quart of vinegar over each pound of strawberries.

  3. Cover the jars and let the strawberries infuse for 3 days.

  4. Drain the vinegar and pour it over fresh strawberries, letting it sit for another 3 days.

  5. Repeat the draining process a third time.

  6. Strain the vinegar through a canvas bag dipped in vinegar.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Measure the vinegar and stir in 1 pound of sugar until almost dissolved.

  2. In an enamelled saucepan, boil the mixture gently for 5 minutes.

  3. Pour it out, let it stand for 12 minutes, skim thoroughly, and bottle for use.

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. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 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

Fresh strawberries
Supply the fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar draws out during repeated infusion.
White-wine vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts strawberry flavour and sets the sharp acidic character of the final drink.
Sugar
Sweetens the sharp vinegar and gives the syrup body, balancing its acidity.

The step that matters

Boiling the sweetened vinegar. Boiling only gently and for the stated time keeps the strawberry aroma from cooking off while the sugar dissolves fully. Skimming removes foam and impurities so the bottled vinegar stays clear and keeps better.

“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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