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Green Mint Vinegar

A vinegar infused with fresh mint, steeped for 40 days.

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 ↓

Green Mint Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Gather fresh mint and place it in bottles.

  2. Fill the bottles nearly to the necks with tarragon vinegar.

  3. After 40 days, strain the mixture and bottle the vinegar.

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. Mint + tarragontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mint + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh mint
Supplies the aroma and flavour that gradually infuse into the vinegar.
Tarragon vinegar
Acidic liquid that draws flavour compounds from the mint and keeps the infusion stable.

The step that matters

Allow the full 40 days to steep. Flavour compounds from the mint move into the vinegar slowly over time. Straining early would give a weak, thin flavour, so the full steeping period matters.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, 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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