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Pineapple Vinegar

A fermented pineapple vinegar made by steeping sliced pineapples in cider vinegar, sweetening, boiling, and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Pineapple Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Cover sliced pineapples with pure cider vinegar and let them stand for 3 to 4 days.

  2. Mash the mixture and strain it through a cloth until the liquid runs clear.

  3. For every 3 quarts of juice, add 5 pounds of sugar.

Cook and bottle

  1. Boil the mixture for about 10 minutes, skimming carefully until nothing rises to the surface.

  2. Remove from heat, let cool, and then bottle it.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Pineapple + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Pineapple + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

  5. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sliced pineapples
Release their juice and flavor into the vinegar during the steeping period.
Pure cider vinegar
Extracts pineapple flavor and provides the sharp acidity that defines the finished vinegar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and helps preserve the finished liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming during the boil. Foam and impurities rise to the surface as the mixture heats. Removing them while boiling keeps the final liquid clear and free of off flavors.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Pineapplethe original
  4. Pearfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar. 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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