Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Hot Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the garlic finely.
Place the chopped garlic in a bottle.
Combine
Add the vinegar and Worcestershire sauce to the bottle.
Seal the bottle and shake well to combine.
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 + garlictop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,115 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,386 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Garlic + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,007 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Vinegar + saucetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,844 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Garlic
- Supplies the pungent, aromatic flavour that infuses into the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity and a sharp base that carries the garlic flavour.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury, umami depth to the sharp vinegar.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, vinegar, sauce):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, vinegar, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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