Name: Harvey's or Camp Vinegar
Ingredients: 2 quarts strong vinegar; 3 tablespoons Indian soy; 3 tablespoons mushroom catsup; 6 anchovies; 2 heads of garlic; ¼ ounce cayenne pepper; cochineal (to color)

Why it works: Mushroom and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,700 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Harvey's or Camp Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a large container.
Shake the mixture 2-3 times a day for 2 weeks.

Finish and bottle

After 2 weeks, filter the vinegar to remove solids.
Bottle the vinegar for use.

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.

Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,115 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Strong vinegar: Acts as the base liquid that extracts flavor from the other ingredients over time.
Anchovies: Add a deep, savory saltiness that builds umami in the finished vinegar.
Garlic: Contributes pungent aroma and sharp flavor that mellows during steeping.
Indian soy: Adds salty, savory depth that rounds out the vinegar's flavor.
Mushroom catsup: Adds savory, umami richness to the finished vinegar.
Cayenne pepper: Supplies heat and pungency that infuses into the vinegar during steeping.

The step that matters

Shake the mixture 2-3 times a day for 2 weeks. Regular shaking keeps the solids in contact with the liquid so flavor and color extract evenly. Skipping it can leave the infusion uneven and weak.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mushroom, pepper):

Thymefits about as well
Tarragonfits about as well
Garlicthe original
Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mushroom, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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Harvey's or Camp Vinegar