Name: Tarragon Vinegar
Ingredients: 1 cup fresh tarragon leaves; 1 quart good cider vinegar

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

1 cup fresh tarragon leaves
1 quart good cider vinegar

Directions

Infuse

Place the tarragon leaves in a glass jar.
Cover with cider vinegar.
Cork the jar and let it sit for two weeks, shaking it frequently.

Strain and bottle

Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.
Pour into small bottles, cork, and store in a cool place for use in salads and fish sauces.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Fresh tarragon leaves: Provides the main aroma and flavour that the vinegar takes up over time.
Cider vinegar: Extracts and carries tarragon flavour while adding its own sharp acidity.