Name: Vinegar of Roses
Ingredients: fresh rose leaves; best white wine vinegar; refined sugar

Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vinegar of Roses

Ingredients

fresh rose leaves
best white wine vinegar
refined sugar

Directions

Loosely place fresh rose leaves into a jar or bottle.
Pour white wine vinegar over the leaves until the jar is filled to the height of the leaves.
Let the mixture sit in a warm place for two to three weeks.
Strain the vinegar through a cotton or flannel bag.
If not clear enough, use isinglass or a little alum-water to clarify.
Store in large bottles, corked tightly, in a dry place.
Add a lump of refined sugar to each bottle.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rose + white winetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together162 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rose + sugartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rose + vinegartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together96 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).