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Raspberry Vinegar

A preserved raspberry vinegar made by steeping raspberries in vinegar, sweetening with sugar, and adding brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Raspberry Vinegar

Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raspberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the raspberries

  1. Pick the raspberries from the stalks and place ½ pint into a stone jar.

  2. Pour 3 pints of vinegar over the raspberries and let them sit for 24 hours.

  3. Strain the liquid over another ½ pint of fresh raspberries and let sit for another 24 hours.

  4. Repeat the process one more time, then drain off the liquid without pressing.

  5. Pass the liquid through a wet jelly bag into a stone jar.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Add 1 lb. of powdered sugar to every pint of liquid and stir until dissolved.

  2. Cover the jar and place it in a saucepan of boiling water for 1 hour, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add ⅓ cup of brandy for each pint, then bottle and seal the corks.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Vinegar + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberries
Provide the main flavour and colour that the vinegar takes up over repeated steeping.
Vinegar
Extracts and carries the raspberry flavour and acts as the sharp base of the drink.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the finished vinegar and balances its acidity.
Brandy
Added at the end to contribute alcohol and aroma that help keep the bottled vinegar stable.

The step that matters

Heating the sealed jar in boiling water. Heat in a water bath gently warms the sweetened liquid and drives off scum and wild microbes, which helps the vinegar keep. Too little time or a loose cover may leave it unstable.

“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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