Name: Strawberry Vinegar
Ingredients: 4 lbs strawberries, stalks removed; 3 quarts vinegar; 4 lbs highly-refined sugar

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 ↓

Strawberry Vinegar

Ingredients

4 lbs strawberries, stalks removed
3 quarts vinegar
4 lbs highly-refined sugar

Directions

Steep the strawberries

Drain the strawberries for 2 to 4 days.
Pour vinegar over the fresh strawberries and let it sit for 3 days.
Drain the vinegar again and pour it over fresh strawberries for another 3 to 4 days.

Sweeten and bottle

For each pound of vinegar, add 1 lb of sugar and boil for 5 minutes.
Store in clean bottles with loosely fitted corks for 4 to 5 days before sealing tightly.

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.

Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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: Supply the fruit flavour and colour that the vinegar draws out over several days.
Vinegar: Extracts strawberry flavour and adds the sharp acidity that defines the finished condiment.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's sharpness and helps preserve the finished liquid.

“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.