Name: Peach Pickle
Ingredients: 4 dozen peaches; 3 dozen allspice; as much pepper as desired; 2 tablespoons salt; vinegar (enough to cover peaches)

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Peach Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, combine vinegar, allspice, pepper, and salt.
Boil the mixture.
Pour the hot mixture over the peaches.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Peach + allspicetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together105 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Peach + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together315 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Peaches: The main fruit, whose flesh softens and takes on the flavor of the pickling liquid.
Vinegar: Provides the sharp acidity that gives pickles their tang and helps preserve the fruit.
Allspice: Adds a warm, clove-like aroma to the pickling liquid.