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Sour Spiced Vinegar

A vinegar infused with spices, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sour Spiced Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the vegetables.

  2. Sprinkle with 1 cup of salt.

  3. Drain overnight.

Pickle

  1. Heat the seasoned vinegar to boiling point.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar over the vegetables.

  3. Add the grated horseradish last.

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.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mixture and sharpens its flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
Green tomatoes
Supply firm bulk that holds its shape during pickling.
Ripe tomatoes
Add juicy body and natural sweetness to the mixture.
Onions
Contribute pungent aroma that mellows as they soak in the vinegar.
Sweet peppers
Add mild crunch and fresh vegetable flavour.

The step that matters

Draining the salted vegetables. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables by osmosis. Draining thoroughly removes that liquid so the hot vinegar is not diluted and the vegetables stay firmer rather than soft.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, allspice, pepper, clove, cinnamon, sugar, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice, pepper, clove, cinnamon, sugar, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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