Why it works: Vinegar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
To Poach Eggs.
Ingredients
Directions
Boil and skim spring water. Add a little vinegar.
Break the eggs gently with a knife to avoid breaking the yolk.
Remove the saucepan from heat and slide the eggs into the boiling water carefully.
Let the saucepan sit by the fire until the egg whites are set, then place it back on the heat for 2 minutes.
Lift the eggs with a slotted spoon, trim any broken parts of the whites, and serve on toast or with cold meat.
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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Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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