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Vinegar From Sugar

A fermented vinegar made from sugar, bran, yeast, crab apples, raisins, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vinegar From Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Boil 10 gallons of water for 10 minutes with 1 quart of bran.

  2. Strain the mixture through flannel into a tub.

  3. Add 12 lb of coarse brown sugar and cool to 70°F (21°C).

  4. Add 1 quart of yeast in three separate additions.

  5. Let it ferment for four days, then remove the yeast.

Set the vinegar

  1. Transfer the liquor to a clean tub, leaving space for 2 lb of bruised crab apples and 1 lb of raisins.

  2. If fermentation occurs, add reserved liquor or boiled sugar water until it stops.

  3. Place the tub in sunlight during summer or near a fire in winter.

  4. Mix 1 oz of isinglass with 1 quart of old vinegar and add to the tub.

  5. Cover the bung hole with a hop-bag and a tile, and leave until ready for use.

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. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Apple + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,884 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Crab + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse brown sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, which later becomes acetic acid.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar water, starting the conversion toward vinegar.
Bruised crab apples
Add fruit acids and flavour, and their surfaces help the fermentation along.
Raisins
Add sugars and nutrients that feed the fermentation and add flavour.
Isinglass
Fining agent that helps clear the vinegar as it settles.

The step that matters

Adding yeast in three separate additions. Yeast needs sugar and suitable temperature to work well, and adding it in portions keeps the fermentation steady rather than overwhelming the liquor. Adding it all at once risks a sluggish or uneven start.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Applethe original
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Vanillafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, crab, raisin, vinegar. 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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