Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Fruit Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse the vinegar
Combine strawberries and vinegar in a clean container and let sit for 3 to 4 days.
Drain the vinegar and pour it over fresh strawberries, letting it sit for another 3 days.
Drain again and repeat with fresh fruit for 2 to 4 days.
Sweeten and rest
Boil the vinegar with sugar for 5 minutes, then lightly cork the mixture and let it sit for 4 to 5 days.
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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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar takes up over repeated soakings.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and colour from the strawberries and gives the drink its tang.
- Highly-refined sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's acidity in the finished syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the vinegar with sugar for 5 minutes. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully into the vinegar so it blends evenly and the mixture stores more stably. Lightly corking after boiling keeps dust and wild microbes out while it rests.
“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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