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Raspberry Vinegar

A raspberry vinegar made by steeping raspberries in vinegar, sweetening with sugar, and boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Raspberry Vinegar

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 ↓

Raspberry Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Pour the vinegar over the raspberries.

  2. Let it stand for two days.

  3. Strain the raspberries.

  4. Press the raspberries to extract all the juice.

  5. Measure the liquid.

Cook and bottle

  1. Add 1 lb of loaf sugar and 2 cloves for each pint.

  2. Put the mixture in a pan.

  3. Bring to a boil without stirring.

  4. Remove any scum that rises.

  5. Boil gently for twenty minutes.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Allow to cool.

  8. Bottle.

  9. Cork 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavour and colour, and their juice forms the body of the vinegar.
White vinegar
Extracts the raspberry flavour and adds the sharp acidity that defines the finished vinegar.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the vinegar and, when boiled, thickens it and helps it keep.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil without stirring. Stirring while the sugar syrup heats can splash or encourage crystals to form on the pan sides, which can make the syrup grainy. Gentle boiling without stirring keeps the syrup clear and smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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