Why it works: Pepper and vinegar 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
Chop the cayenne peppers finely.
Combine the chopped peppers with the vinegar in a jar.
Let the mixture sit for two weeks.
Strain the mixture and bottle it.
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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Pepper + vinegartop 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
- Cayenne peppers
- Supply the heat and pepper flavor that the vinegar absorbs during steeping.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor and heat from the chopped peppers over time.
The step that matters
Let the mixture sit for two weeks. Steeping time lets the vinegar draw out flavor and heat from the peppers. Cutting it short leaves the vinegar weak and under-flavored, so the full two weeks matter.
“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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