Name: Cider Vinegar
Ingredients: Cider; Rinsings of sugar basin or molasses jug; Remains of ale or cold tea

Why it works: Cider and tea work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Cider Vinegar

Ingredients

Cider
Rinsings of sugar basin or molasses jug
Remains of ale or cold tea

Directions

Set the sour cider in a warm place.
Occasionally add rinsings from the sugar basin or molasses jug and any remains of ale or cold tea.
Leave the bung open and let it sit until it turns into vinegar.

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.

Cider + teatop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together43 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + teatop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,204 recipes

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