Name: Pepper Sauce
Ingredients: mammoth peppers; good cider vinegar

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Pepper Sauce

Ingredients

mammoth peppers
good cider vinegar

Directions

Remove the seeds from the peppers and cut the pods into pieces.
Cover the pepper pieces with cider vinegar.
Boil until the pulp is easily removed from the skin.
Strain through a sieve to remove the skins.
Bottle the sauce for use.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + cidertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,234 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).