Why it works: Meat and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,428 recipes. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓
How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients
Directions
Place the meat in boiling water to set the juices.
For corned meats and soups, use cold water.
Boil ham for 20 minutes per pound, corned beef for 20 minutes, and mutton for about 15 minutes.
If the meat is tough, add a little vinegar to the water.
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.
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Meat + vinegartop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,428 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Forms the dish; its type sets the cooking time and water temperature.
- Vinegar
- Acidity in the water may help soften tough meat fibers.
The step that matters
Starting the meat in boiling water to set the juices. Plunging the meat into boiling water sears the surface and seals in juices early. Corned meats are the exception and start in cold water, so the cook should match the starting water to the meat type.
“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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