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Rhubarb Vinegar

A fermented liquid made by macerating rhubarb, sugar, and yeast in water, then aging until it turns into vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mash the rhubarb in a tub.

  2. Pour the water over the mashed rhubarb and let it stand for 24 hours.

Ferment

  1. Strain the mixture and add the sugar and brewers' yeast.

  2. Let it sit in a warm place for about a month.

Finish

  1. Strain again and put it back in the cask until it becomes 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. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart, fruity flavor that the finished vinegar carries.
Sugar
Feeds the fermentation, which turns it into alcohol and then acid, and leaves some sweetness.
Brewers' yeast
Starts the fermentation that converts the sugar into alcohol.

The step that matters

Leaving it warm for about a month. Yeast first turns sugar into alcohol, then acetic acid bacteria slowly turn that alcohol into acetic acid, which is the sourness of vinegar. The process is slow and needs warmth and air, so rushing it or letting it go cold leaves the liquid sweet or sluggish.

“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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