Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Garlic-Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Stir garlic vinegar into melted butter.
Chop and pound garlic cloves with a bit of butter or a little oil.
Rub the paste through a sieve and simmer it in the butter.
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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Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,115 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,386 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + garlictop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,572 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,045 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
- Melted butter
- Forms the sauce base and carries fat-soluble flavor, giving richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Garlic
- Provides the main aroma and pungent flavor, which mellows as the garlic is cooked in butter.
- Garlic vinegar
- Adds acidity and sharp tang that balances the richness of the butter.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, garlic, vinegar):
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, garlic, vinegar. 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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