Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse
Place the strawberries in a large glass jar or wide-necked bottle.
Pour 1½ cups of fine pale white wine vinegar over the strawberries.
Cover the jar with thick paper and let it sit for 3 to 4 days.
Strain and refresh
Pour off the vinegar.
Strain it through a jelly bag or cloth to remove the strawberries.
Replace the strawberries with an equal weight of fresh strawberries.
Pour the vinegar over the strawberries.
Repeat this process after 3 days, using slightly fewer strawberries each time.
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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White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Ripe strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar takes up during infusion.
- White wine vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts strawberry flavour and supplies the sharp acidity.
The step that matters
Covering and letting the jar sit. Strawberry flavour is pulled into the vinegar slowly over several days, so the jar must be left undisturbed. Rushing the infusion or straining too early gives a weak, thin flavour.
“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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