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Raspberry or Blackberry Vinegar

A fermented vinegar made from crushed raspberries or blackberries, sugar, and cider vinegar, then clarified and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Raspberry or Blackberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the berries

  1. Crush the berries well in a large crock using a wooden mallet.

  2. Cover the crushed berries with cider vinegar, 1 inch deep.

  3. Place the crock in the hot sunshine for a day and leave it in the cellar overnight.

  4. Stir the mixture six times during the day.

  5. Strain and squeeze the berries dry, then discard them.

  6. Add another gallon of mashed berries to the strained vinegar and repeat the sun and cellar process.

  7. Strain and squeeze the berries again and measure the liquid.

Make the syrup

  1. For each quart of liquid, add 1 pint of water and 5 pounds of sugar.

  2. In a porcelain-lined or agate-iron kettle, heat the mixture over the fire, stirring until the sugar melts.

  3. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute to remove scum.

  4. Skim well, remove from heat, strain, and bottle while still warm.

  5. Seal the corks with a mixture of beeswax and rosin.

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

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

  3. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Berries
Provide the main fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar extracts over repeated soaking.
Cider vinegar
Extracts fruit flavour and colour from the berries and gives the tart, acidic character.
Sugar
Sweetens the vinegar and balances its sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Boil hard for 1 minute and skim well. Boiling brings impurities and scum to the surface, and skimming removes them so the vinegar stays clear. Stirring until the sugar fully dissolves before boiling prevents grainy syrup and scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

“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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