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Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

A sweetened strawberry vinegar made by macerating strawberries in wine vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the vinegar

  1. Remove the stalks from the strawberries.

  2. Place the strawberries in large glass jars or wide-necked bottles.

  3. Pour 1½ pints of white wine vinegar over the strawberries.

  4. Cover the strawberries with thick paper.

  5. Let the mixture sit for 3 to 4 days.

  6. Strain the liquid through a jelly bag or cloth without pressing.

  7. Replace the strawberries with an equal weight of fresh strawberries.

  8. Repeat the process, reducing the amount of strawberries slightly each time.

  9. After 2 to 4 days, drain the liquid.

Make the syrup

  1. Weigh the drained liquid.

  2. Mix the liquid with an equal quantity of powdered sugar until nearly dissolved.

  3. Heat the mixture over a clear fire for 5 minutes.

  4. Skim the mixture thoroughly.

Bottle

  1. Pour the mixture into clean stone pitchers or large china jugs.

  2. Cover the pitchers with a cloth until the next day.

  3. Bottle the mixture in pint or half-pint bottles.

  4. Cork the bottles lightly at first.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

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

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

  3. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 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

Ripe strawberries
Supply the fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar takes up during infusion.
White wine vinegar
Acts as the infusing liquid and provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the infused vinegar and helps preserve it as a syrup.

The step that matters

Skim the mixture thoroughly. Heating the sugar and fruit liquid draws foam and impurities to the surface. Removing them keeps the syrup clear and reduces spoilage risk in storage.

“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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