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 ↓
Very Fine Raspberry Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stalks from the raspberries and fill glass jars or wide-necked bottles with them.
Infuse
Cover the raspberries with pale white wine vinegar and let them infuse for 7 to 10 days.
After infusion, drain the vinegar and place the raspberries in a sieve over a bowl to collect the juice.
Replace the raspberries in the bottles and pour the vinegar back over them, changing the fruit every 2 to 3 days.
After the final infusion, drain the vinegar and strain it through a jelly bag or thick cloth.
Make the syrup
Boil the strained vinegar gently for 4 to 5 minutes with an equal weight of sugar, skimming off any scum that forms.
Bottle the syrup the next day.
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).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,586 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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main flavour and colour, with their juice carried into the vinegar during infusion.
- Pale white wine vinegar
- Extracts the fruit flavour and gives the sharp acidity that balances the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the vinegar and, when boiled, thickens it into a syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling the strained vinegar with sugar. Boiling only briefly, gently, and with skimming keeps the syrup clear and fresh-tasting; overboiling can darken and dull the flavour of the fruit.
“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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