Name: Vinegar of the Four Thieves
Ingredients: large handful of lavender; large handful of rosemary; large handful of sage; large handful of wormwood; large handful of rue; large handful of mint; 4 quarts of strong vinegar; 1 clove of garlic per bottle

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 ↓

Vinegar of the Four Thieves

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the lavender, rosemary, sage, wormwood, rue, and mint in an earthenware pot.
Pour 4 quarts of strong vinegar over the herbs.
Cover the pot tightly and place a board on top.
Leave the pot in direct sunlight for 2 weeks.
Strain the mixture and bottle it, adding 1 clove of garlic to each bottle.
Allow the vinegar to settle and become clear, then pour it off gently to remove sediment.

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.

Rosemary + sagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).
Rosemary + clovetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together519 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Rosemary + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,180 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rosemary + minttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together165 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the garlic

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

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Allspicefits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lavender, rosemary, sage, mint, vinegar, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.