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Garlic Vinegar

A vinegar infused with garlic, steeped for ten days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 ↓

Garlic Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the garlic

  1. Pour the chopped garlic into a jar.

  2. Add the white wine vinegar and seal the jar tightly.

  3. Let it steep for ten days, shaking it well every day.

Bottle

  1. After ten days, pour off the clear liquid into small bottles.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Garlic + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,044 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Garlic
Supplies the main flavour and aroma as its compounds slowly dissolve into the vinegar.
White wine vinegar
Acts as the solvent that draws out garlic flavour and gives the liquid its sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Steeping for ten days with daily shaking. Flavour extracts slowly from garlic into vinegar. Shaking daily keeps the garlic in contact with the liquid so the extraction is even. Sealing the jar tightly keeps the vinegar from evaporating during the long steep.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicthe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar. 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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