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Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

A sweetened strawberry-infused vinegar made by steeping strawberries in wine vinegar, repeating the process, and boiling with powdered 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

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

  2. Pour 1½ pints of white wine vinegar over the strawberries.

  3. Cover with thick paper and let sit for 3 to 4 days.

Renew the fruit

  1. Strain the vinegar through a jelly bag or cloth without pressing.

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

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

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

  5. Strain the liquid through a linen or flannel bag.

Sweeten and boil

  1. Weigh the liquid, then mix it with an equal quantity of powdered sugar.

  2. Stir the mixture over a clear fire until it boils for 5 minutes.

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

Ripe strawberries
Supply the main fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar takes up over repeated steepings.
White wine vinegar
Extracts the fruit flavour and gives the finished preserve its sharp acidity.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and thickens the liquid as it boils.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture until it boils. The sugar must dissolve fully before the mixture boils, and constant stirring over the heat keeps it from catching and scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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