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Eschalot, or Garlic Vinegar

A vinegar infused with eschalots or garlic, used to flavor sauces and gravies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,115 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Eschalot, or Garlic Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vinegar

  1. Pour the vinegar over the peeled and bruised eschalots or garlic in a jar or bottle.

  2. Seal the jar or bottle tightly.

  3. Let it sit for 2 to 3 weeks.

Strain and use

  1. Strain the vinegar for use.

  2. Add a few drops to sauces or gravies for flavor.

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. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Eschalots or garlic
Release their aroma and pungent flavor into the vinegar as they steep.
Vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor from the bulbs and keeps the infusion stable.

The step that matters

Seal the jar tightly and let it steep the full 2 to 3 weeks. A tight seal keeps the vinegar from evaporating and limits contamination, while the full steeping period lets flavor compounds from the cut bulbs migrate into the liquid. Shortening the wait leaves a weak, raw-tasting infusion.

“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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