Name: Very Fine Raspberry Vinegar
Ingredients: 6 lbs very ripe raspberries, freed from their stalks; 9 pints pale white wine vinegar; 1 lb 4 oz good sugar, roughly powdered

Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Very Fine Raspberry Vinegar

Ingredients

6 lbs very ripe raspberries, freed from their stalks
9 pints pale white wine vinegar
1 lb 4 oz good sugar, roughly powdered

Directions

Infuse

Fill glass jars or wide-necked bottles with raspberries and cover with vinegar.
Let infuse for 7 to 10 days, or drain and replace raspberries every 3 to 5 days.

Strain and boil

After the final infusion, strain the raspberries through a sieve over a bowl to collect the juice.
Boil the collected vinegar gently for 4 to 5 minutes with the sugar, removing any scum.

Bottle

Bottle the syrup the next day.

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.

White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,586 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

Raspberries: Provide the main flavour and colour, released into the vinegar during infusion.
White wine vinegar: Extracts the raspberry flavour and provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.
Sugar: Sweetens the vinegar and, once dissolved, thickens it into a syrup.

The step that matters

Gentle boiling with the sugar. Boiling gently keeps the raspberry aroma and fresh flavour from cooking off, while removing scum keeps the syrup clear. Vigorous boiling can evaporate volatile aromas and darken the colour.

“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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Very Fine Raspberry Vinegar