Name: Pickled Cherries
Ingredients: 2 cups vinegar; 1 large teaspoon peppercorns; 2 lumps sugar; 12 whole allspice; 6 cloves; a dust of nutmeg; a dust of cayenne; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') to taste; cherries (stalked and stoned, or whole if small)

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the vinegar for 10-15 minutes with peppercorns, sugar, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt.
Wipe, stalk, and stone the cherries, or leave them whole if small.

Pickle and seal

Place the cherries in a jar.
Pour the boiling vinegar through a muslin cloth over the cherries.
Once cooled, cover the jar.

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.

Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Provides the acidity that preserves the cherries and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Cherries: Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing the spiced vinegar as they sit.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.