Name: Mock Olives
Ingredients: green plums; scalding hot vinegar; coarse sea salt; mustard seed

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Olives

Ingredients

green plums
scalding hot vinegar
coarse sea salt
mustard seed

Directions

Take green plums before they begin to ripen.
Pour scalding hot vinegar over the plums, adding coarse sea salt and mustard seed.
Let the mixture stand overnight.
Drain the plums, then boil the vinegar mixture and pour it over the plums again.
Bottle and seal the plums.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together655 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together158 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).