Name: Tomato Butter
Ingredients: 1 pint cider vinegar; tomatoes (quantity not specified)

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 ↓

Tomato Butter

Ingredients

1 pint cider vinegar
tomatoes (quantity not specified)

Directions

Boil the cider vinegar gently for three to four hours.
Skin the tomatoes and remove all hard parts.

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).
Vinegar + tomatotop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cider + tomatotop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together524 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).