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Tarragon Vinegar

A vinegar infused with tarragon leaves, steeped for 7–8 weeks.

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 ↓

Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leaves

  1. Gather tarragon leaves on a dry day at the end of July, just before blooming.

  2. Remove the stalks and slightly bruise the leaves.

Infuse

  1. Place the leaves in a wide-necked bottle and cover with vinegar.

  2. Seal the bottle tightly to exclude air and let it stand in a cool, dry place for 7 to 8 weeks.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the liquid through fine muslin until clear.

  2. Transfer to small bottles, cork tightly, and store in a cool, dry place.

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

Tarragon leaves
Supply the aromatic oils that flavour the vinegar as they steep.
Vinegar
Acts as the solvent that draws out tarragon flavour and preserves the infusion.

The step that matters

Sealing the bottle during the 7 to 8 week infusion. Sealing keeps air out so the vinegar does not oxidise or spoil while the leaves steep. Leaving the bottle open lets the infusion weaken or turn, so the flavour may fail to develop properly.

“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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