Skip to main content
Drink

Strawbesiit Vinegar, of Delicioes Flavour

A fermented strawberry vinegar made by steeping strawberries in vinegar, then refining with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Strawbesiit Vinegar, of Delicioes Flavour

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the vinegar

  1. Remove the stalks from the strawberries and place them in large glass jars or wide-necked bottles.

  2. Pour 1½ pints of vinegar over each pound of strawberries.

  3. Cover the mixture with thick paper.

  4. Let the strawberries steep for 3 to 4 days.

  5. Pour off the vinegar.

  6. Strain the liquid through a jelly bag or cloth to remove the strawberries.

  7. Replace the strawberries with an equal weight of fresh fruit. Pour the vinegar over the new strawberries.

  8. Let the strawberries steep for 3 days.

  9. Repeat the process, using slightly fewer strawberries each time.

  10. Drain the liquid after 2 to 4 days.

  11. Strain the liquid through a linen or flannel bag.

Sweeten and finish

  1. Weigh the liquid.

  2. Mix the liquid with an equal quantity of sugar.

  3. Stir the mixture over a clear fire until it boils for 5 minutes. Skim off any foam.

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. 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
Provide the fruit flavour and colour that the vinegar takes up during steeping.
Vinegar
Extracts the fruit flavour and acts as the sharp, acidic base of the preserve.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and sweetens the finished syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling the strained liquid with sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully before boiling, and the mixture must boil long enough to thicken and keep. Stirring prevents scorching on the base, and skimming removes foam so the syrup stays clear.

“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.

You might also like

Raspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesSugar VinegarSugar Vinegar20 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipes