Name: Baspberry Vinegar
Ingredients: 4 quarts red raspberries; vinegar (enough to cover raspberries); 1 pound sugar; 1 pint juice from raspberries; 1 glass 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 ↓

Baspberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Steep

Cover raspberries with vinegar and let them stand for 24 hours.

Strain and sweeten

Scald and strain the mixture.
Add 1 pound of sugar to 1 pint of the juice.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Bottle the mixture.

Serve

Add a large spoonful to 1 glass of water.

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

Red raspberries: Provide the main flavor and color, with juice released as they steep in vinegar.
Vinegar: Extracts raspberry flavor and provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.
Sugar: Sweetens the syrup and balances the vinegar's tartness.

“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.