Name: Thieves' Vinegar
Ingredients: 2 ounces rue; 2 ounces sage; 2 ounces rosemary; 2 ounces lavender; 2 ounces wormwood; 1 pint white-wine vinegar; ½ ounce camphor

Why it works: Sage and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry 1,8-cineol, which smells eucalyptus, camphor. The science ↓

Thieves' Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Soak rue, sage, rosemary, lavender, and wormwood in white-wine vinegar for three days, keeping it at a short distance from the fire.
Dissolve camphor in the vinegar and strain well.
In cases of infection, bathe the nostrils and around the mouth with this preparation.

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.

Sage + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).
Rosemary + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together895 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rosemary + lavendertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together115 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rosemary + camphortop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rosemary, lavender, wine, vinegar, camphor):

Thymefits better
Peppermintfits about as well
Sagethe original
Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rosemary, lavender, wine, vinegar, camphor. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.