Why it works: Clove and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 280 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Peach and Apricot Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare the peaches and nectarines, removing the stones.
Slice the fruit thinly.
Make the wine
Pour 2 to 4 gallons of water and 1 quart of white wine over the sliced fruit.
Simmer the mixture gently until the fruit becomes soft.
Pour off the liquid into another vessel with more sliced, unheated peaches.
Let the mixture stand for 12 hours.
Pour out the liquid and press the remaining fruit through a fine bag.
Transfer the liquid to a cask to ferment.
Add 1½ pounds of loaf sugar for each gallon of liquid.
Add the spices
Boil 1 ounce of beaten cloves in 1 quart of white wine.
Add the boiled cloves to the mixture.
Boil 1 ounce of mace and ½ ounce of nutmeg in 1 quart of white wine.
Add the boiled mace and nutmeg while fermenting.
Bottle
Wait 20 to 30 days.
Bottle the wine.
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 + peachtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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White wine + peachtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together79 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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White wine + clovetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,715 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peaches
- Provide the main fruit flavour and the natural sugars that fermentation turns into alcohol.
- Nectarines
- Add more fruit flavour and sweetness, similar to the peaches.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and feeds the fermentation, giving the finished wine more body.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and liquid that helps lift the fruit flavour.
- Cloves
- Add a warm, spicy aroma to the finished wine.
The step that matters
Simmer the fruit gently. Gentle heat softens the fruit and draws out its juice and flavour. A hard boil can break the pulp down and cloud the liquid, making the final wine harder to strain clear.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sugar, peach):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Peppermintfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sugar, peach. 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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