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Drink

Tarragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with tarragon leaves.

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 ↓

Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tarragon

  1. Gather tarragon on a dry day and pluck the leaves from the stalks.

  2. Place the leaves on a plate near the fire for at least one hour.

  3. Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with the dried leaves.

Infuse and bottle

  1. Pour white-wine vinegar over the leaves until the bottle is full.

  2. Cork the bottle tightly and let it sit for two weeks.

  3. Strain the clear liquid into sauce bottles for use.

  4. Store the bottles in a dry place, well corked.

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. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Tarragon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together521 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Tarragon leaves
Supply the main aroma and flavour that the vinegar draws out over time.
White-wine vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts tarragon flavour and adds sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Drying the leaves before filling the bottle. Water left on or in the leaves dilutes the vinegar, weakening its flavour and making spoilage more likely. Drying them first keeps the infusion concentrated.

“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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