Name: North Carolina Watermelon Muffins
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 cup water; ¼ tsp salt; 1 cup pecans, chopped; 2 cups all purpose flour; 1 cup (10 oz jar) watermelon pickles, chopped; 1 tsp baking soda; ½ tsp cloves; 1 tsp cinnamon; ½ cup margarine; 1 tsp vanilla

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Clove + vanillatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,049 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Pecans + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,047 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Pecans + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,691 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon pickles: Provide the main flavour, sweetness and moisture in the batter.
All purpose flour: Forms the structure of the muffins as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic pickle mixture to lift and lighten the muffins.
Margarine: Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer texture.
Pecans: Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour.

The step that matters

Cool the cooked mixture before adding the flour. The mixture must be cooled at least 30 minutes before the sifted flour mixture is added. Adding flour to a hot mixture can start setting the batter unevenly and affect how the baking soda reacts, so the muffins may rise poorly or turn out dense.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, clove, cinnamon, vanilla):

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Cashew nutfits better
Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, clove, cinnamon, vanilla. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Watermelon	1 cup diced (152g)	46
Pecan	1 half (4g)	20
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

North Carolina Watermelon Muffins