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How to Make Tarragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with fresh tarragon, made by steeping tarragon in white wine vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

How to Make Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Place the tarragon in a quart-sized preserving jar.

  2. Fill the jar with white wine vinegar and cover tightly.

  3. Store in a cool, dark place for 2 to 3 weeks.

Strain and bottle

  1. Afterward, strain the vinegar and bottle it.

  2. Fill the jar again with fresh vinegar and store.

  3. It will be ready to use in a month.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tarragon + white winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Fresh tarragon
Provides the main aroma and flavour that the vinegar takes on during infusion.
White wine vinegar
Acts as the liquid that extracts and carries tarragon's flavour, and gives the finished vinegar its acidity.

The step that matters

Storing in a cool, dark place. Herbs and vinegar are steeped for weeks, and light and heat can fade the herb's colour and flavour and degrade its aroma. A cool, dark spot keeps the infusion stable while the flavour develops slowly.

“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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