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Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

A sweet strawberry vinegar made by infusing ripe strawberries in wine vinegar, then sweetening with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the vinegar

  1. Place the strawberries in a large glass jar or wide-necked bottle.

  2. Pour 1½ cups of wine vinegar over the strawberries.

  3. Cover the strawberries with thick paper.

  4. Let the mixture sit for 3 to 4 days.

  5. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag or cloth to extract the liquid.

  6. Replace the strawberries with an equal weight of fresh strawberries.

  7. Repeat the process after 3 days, using slightly fewer strawberries each time.

  8. After 2 to 4 days, drain the liquid.

  9. Strain the drained liquid through a linen or flannel bag.

Make the syrup

  1. Mix the strained liquid with an equal quantity of sugar.

  2. Stir the mixture until nearly dissolved.

  3. Boil the syrup over a clear fire for 5 minutes.

  4. Skim the boiling syrup thoroughly.

  5. Pour the syrup into a clean stone pitcher or large china jug.

  6. Cover the pitcher with a cloth until the next day.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle the syrup in pint or half-pint bottles.

  2. Cork the bottles lightly with new velvet corks.

  3. After 4 to 5 days, cork the bottles tightly.

  4. Store the bottles in a cool, dry place.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Strawberries
Provide the fruit flavour and colour that the vinegar draws out.
Wine vinegar
Extracts the strawberry flavour and acts as the sharp, acidic base of the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve it once bottled.

The step that matters

Skim the boiling syrup thoroughly. Boiling syrup releases foam and impurities that rise to the surface. Removing them keeps the syrup clear and reduces cloudiness and spoilage in the bottle.

“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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