Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Cayenne Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Combine cayenne pepper and vinegar in a bottle.
Let the mixture steep for one month.
Strain the mixture and bottle it for use.
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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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cayenne pepper
- Supplies the heat and pepper flavour that the vinegar takes on as it steeps.
- Vinegar
- Extracts the pepper's flavour and heat over time and acts as the preserving liquid.
The step that matters
Let the mixture steep for one month. Steeping is what transfers the pepper's heat and flavour into the vinegar. Cutting the time short leaves the infusion weak and under-flavoured, since the chemical compounds responsible for heat dissolve slowly into the liquid.
“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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