Why it works: Clove and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,386 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Clove Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Steep the bruised cloves in the strong vinegar for six weeks.
Filter the mixture until it is clear.
Bottle and cork the vinegar tightly in half pint 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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Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,386 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bruised cloves
- Supply the warm, aromatic flavour that the vinegar slowly draws out during steeping.
- Strong vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the cloves and adds sharp acidity.
The step that matters
Steep the cloves for the full six weeks. Flavour compounds dissolve gradually into the vinegar over time. Cutting the steeping short leaves the vinegar weak and under-flavoured, because the extraction has not had time to finish.
“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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