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Aromatic Vinegar

A vinegar infused with rosemary, sage, lavender, cloves, camphor, and distilled vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rosemary and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry 1,8-cineol, which smells eucalyptus, camphor. The science ↓

Aromatic Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large jar.

  2. Seal the jar and place it in a warm location for 2 weeks.

  3. After 2 weeks, filter the mixture to remove solids.

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. Rosemary + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  2. Rosemary + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Rosemary + lavendertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Rosemary + camphortop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Distilled vinegar
Acidic liquid that extracts aromatic compounds from the herbs and flowers.
Dried rosemary tops
Contributes a resinous, pine-like aroma to the vinegar.
Dried sage leaves
Adds a savory, earthy aroma and flavor.
Dried lavender flowers
Contributes a floral aroma to the infused vinegar.
Cloves
Adds a warm, pungent spice aroma.

The step that matters

Infusing for 2 weeks in a warm location. Flavor and aroma compounds are released slowly from dried herbs into the vinegar. Sealing the jar keeps volatile aromatics from escaping, and the full two weeks give the vinegar time to draw out enough flavor. Stopping early leaves the infusion weak.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rosemary, sage, lavender, camphor, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rosemary, sage, lavender, camphor, 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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