Name: Vinegar for Sick-room
Ingredients: 1 gallon strong cider vinegar; large handful of rosemary; large handful of wormwood; large handful of rue; large handful of lavender; large handful of sage; large handful of mint; 1 oz. powdered camphor

Why it works: Rosemary and sage 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 ↓

Vinegar for Sick-room

Ingredients

Directions

Place the rosemary, wormwood, rue, lavender, sage, and mint in a stone jar.
Pour 1 gallon of strong cider vinegar over the herbs.
Cover the jar tightly and keep it near the fire for 4 days.
Strain the mixture and add 1 oz. of powdered camphor.
Bottle the vinegar and keep it tightly corked.

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.

Rosemary + sagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).
Rosemary + minttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together165 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + minttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together138 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Rosemary + lavendertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together115 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the mint

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

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Clovefits better
Mintthe original

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