Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Chili Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the chilies in half or pound them.
Infuse the chilies in the vinegar for two weeks.
Alternatively, use ¼ ounce of Cayenne Pepper for a quicker option.
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 + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red english chilies
- Provide the heat and pepper flavour that the vinegar takes on during infusion.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts the chilies' flavour and heat over the infusion.
- Cayenne pepper
- Offers a quicker alternative source of heat and pepper flavour in place of fresh chilies.
The step that matters
Cutting or pounding the chilies. Breaking the chili flesh exposes more surface area to the vinegar, so capsaicin and flavour compounds dissolve more fully during infusion.
“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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