Name: Pepper Sauce
Ingredients: small red or green peppers; ½ quart cider vinegar; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

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

small red or green peppers
½ quart cider vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions

Prepare

Fill a quart bottle with small red or green peppers until covered.
Pour in the cider vinegar to cover the peppers.
Add the granulated sugar.
Cork the bottle tightly.

Use

Use as a table condiment or to season sauces.

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).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Pepper + cidertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,234 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cider vinegar: Provides the acidity that preserves the peppers and gives the sauce its sharp, tangy flavour.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Small red or green peppers: Supply the main flavour and pepper character of the sauce as they steep in the vinegar.

“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.