Why it works: Mint and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,376 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Mint Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse
Place fresh mint leaves in a wide-mouthed bottle until loosely filled.
Fill the bottle with good vinegar.
Seal the bottle tightly and let it sit for 2 to 3 weeks.
Strain and bottle
Pour the vinegar off into another bottle, leaving the sediment behind.
Cork the new bottle well.
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.
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Mint + vinegartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,376 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mint leaves
- Release aromatic oils into the vinegar, giving it a mint flavour and aroma.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts the mint's flavour and aroma over time.
The step that matters
Seal the bottle tightly and let it sit for 2 to 3 weeks. Leaves must stay fully submerged and the bottle sealed so the infusion develops evenly and the flavour is drawn out slowly without spoiling. Long, steady contact lets the mint's aromatic compounds dissolve into the acidic liquid.
“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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