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Drink

Tarragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with tarragon leaves, clarified with isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Gather tarragon leaves just before they flower.

  2. In a stone jar, combine tarragon leaves and white wine vinegar.

  3. Cover and let it infuse for 14 days.

Strain and clarify

  1. Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.

  2. For every 4 gallons, add ½ ounce of dissolved isinglass.

  3. Transfer to a cask or stone bottle and let it stand for 1-2 months to clarify.

Bottle

  1. Bottle in pint or half-pint bottles.

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).

  2. Tarragon + white winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 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

Tarragon leaves
Supply the main aromatic flavour, which the vinegar draws out during infusion.
White wine vinegar
Acts as the solvent that extracts tarragon flavour and gives the sharp acidic base.
Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent that binds haze particles so they settle out, clearing the vinegar.

The step that matters

Dose the isinglass correctly. Isinglass is a fining agent: it binds cloud-forming particles so they settle during the standing period. Measure it against the batch size as written, so the vinegar clears during the standing period.

“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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