Name: Pepper Vinegar and Tarragon Vinegar
Ingredients: 1 quart bottle; small peppers (green or ripe); 2 tablespoons sugar; good vinegar; 3 ounces tarragon leaves

Why it works: Pepper and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pepper Vinegar and Tarragon Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Fill a quart bottle with small peppers.
Add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Fill the bottle with good vinegar.
For tarragon vinegar, substitute 3 ounces of tarragon leaves for the peppers.

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.

Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,401 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Small peppers: Supply the pungent flavor and heat that the vinegar takes on.
Sugar: Adds mild sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Good vinegar: Carries the flavor of the peppers and provides the sharp acidity.
Tarragon leaves: Give the vinegar its distinctive anise-like aroma in the tarragon version.