Why it works: Chive and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 450 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Ravigote Vinegar. Vinaigre D LA Ravigote.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine tarragon, pimpernel, chives, shallots, garlic, elder flowers, lemon zest, and bruised cloves in a jar.
Pour 24 pints of strong white vinegar over the mixture.
Let it sit for a month to develop flavor.
After a month, add 2.5 ounces of spirits of wine to enhance the vinegar.
Store in bottles for long-term preservation.
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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Chive + shallottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together450 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together602 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Tarragon + chivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together589 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,137 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,149 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tarragon, chive, shallot, garlic, clove, vinegar, spirit):
- Limefits better
- Lemonthe original
- Cherryfits about as well
- Avocadofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, chive, shallot, garlic, clove, vinegar, spirit. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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