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Tarragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with fresh tarragon leaves, steeped for two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 ↓

Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Place tarragon leaves in a wide‑mouthed bottle.

  2. Cover with cold cider vinegar.

  3. Cork the bottle and let it sit for two weeks, shaking frequently.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain and squeeze the mixture through a flannel bag.

  2. Pour into small bottles, cork, seal, and store in a cool place.

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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Tarragon + cidertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tarragon leaves
Release their aroma and flavour into the vinegar over the two-week steep.
Cider vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts tarragon's aromatic compounds and gives the finished vinegar its sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Shaking the sealed bottle during the two-week steep. Shaking frequently keeps the leaves in contact with the vinegar and helps spread the flavour evenly, so the infusion extracts fully rather than unevenly at the surface.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, 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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