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Taragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with tarragon leaves, steeped for three months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Taragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strip the leaves from the tarragon before it blossoms.

  2. Combine the tarragon leaves and white wine vinegar in a jar.

  3. Seal the jar tightly and let it stand for three months.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through muslin.

  2. Pour the strained vinegar into small bottles and cork them well.

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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tarragon + white winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Fresh tarragon leaves
Supplies the aromatic flavour that infuses into the vinegar over time.
White wine vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts tarragon's flavour and carries it in the final liquid.

The step that matters

Seal the jar tightly and let it stand for three months. Flavour extraction is slow and depends on steeping time; a loosely sealed jar lets vinegar evaporate and can admit contaminants, so the steep must be closed and left undisturbed.

“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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