Quick Strawberry Vinegar

This is a drinking vinegar — a shrub syrup meant to be diluted with cold or sparkling water, not a salad vinegar. The whole point is the short cut: traditional fruit vinegars steep for days, this one is done in under half an hour.

• The hinge: low heat, no waterMashed berries release plenty of juice on their own, but the pan will scorch in the first few minutes before that juice appears. Use a heavy pan over the lowest useful heat and stir until the fruit is visibly wet, then raise the heat.
• Quart of mashed berriesThat is a quart measured after mashing — roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb of hulled strawberries. Slightly overripe fruit gives more juice and more perfume.
• Which vinegarA half cup of 5% cider vinegar is the sensible reading; white wine vinegar also works. Anything labelled above 5%, or a heavily flavoured balsamic, will overwhelm the fruit.
• Add the vinegar off the boilAdd the vinegar at the end -- The recipe holds it until after the ten minutes of boiling. Long boiling with the vinegar in the pan may cost some of its aroma; note that the recipe does not actually direct you to take the pan off the heat.
• StrainingPour through a fine sieve and let it drip rather than pressing the pulp, which clouds the syrup. Pressing gives more volume but a muddier drink.
• Yield and servingServing -- Figure 2 to 3 tablespoons in a tall glass of cold or soda water over ice; it is also good over vanilla ice cream.
• StorageTen minutes of boiling and a modest amount of sugar do not make this shelf stable. Bottle it, refrigerate, and use within two or three weeks.
• Raspberry versionThe same method suits raspberries, which give up juice faster and need watching from the first minute. Strain raspberry syrup twice if you dislike the seeds.