Why it works: Garlic and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,115 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Garlic, Onions, or Eschalot Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the chopped garlic and vinegar in a jar.
Seal the jar tightly and shake it well every day.
Let the mixture steep for 10 days.
After 10 days, pour off the clear liquid into small bottles.
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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Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,115 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Garlic
- Releases its aromatic compounds into the vinegar, flavouring the liquid over the steeping period.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts garlic flavour and provides the sharp acidic base.
The step that matters
Sealing and daily shaking during steeping. A tightly sealed jar keeps the vinegar from evaporating and contamination out. Daily shaking spreads the garlic through the liquid so flavour extracts evenly rather than staying near the bottom.
“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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