Why it works: Peach and clove 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 ↓
Baked Peach Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare peach shortcake dough and cut it into 5-inch squares.
Place a whole peach in the center of each square.
Fill the peach center with sugar and a whole clove.
Pinch the edges of the dough together and place the dumplings in a baking tin, smooth side up.
Pour ½ cup of water over the dumplings and cover the tin.
Bake until the crust is done, then uncover and brown.
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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Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Peach + sugartop 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
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peach, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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