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Flavored Vinegars

A vinegar infused with herbs such as tarragon, basil, mint, sage, thyme, or marjoram.

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 ↓

Flavored Vinegars

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the herbs

  1. Place the herbs in a large jar.

  2. Pour the sharp vinegar over the herbs.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 10 days.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the vinegar to remove the herbs.

  2. Bottle the flavored vinegar 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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 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

Herbs (in the method)
Release aromatic oils and flavor compounds into the vinegar during steeping.
Vinegar
Acts as the solvent that draws out herb flavor and adds sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 10 days. Flavor compounds dissolve out of the herbs slowly, so the full time is needed for a strong infusion. Stopping early gives a weak, under-flavored vinegar, and the herbs must be removed afterward so they do not turn bitter or spoil the batch.

“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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