Name: Canned Peaches
Ingredients: choice peaches; boiling water; sugar; syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Canned Peaches

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

choice peaches
boiling water
sugar
syrup

Directions

Peel and quarter the peaches by dipping them in boiling water for a moment, then in cold water to remove the skins.
Prepare a porcelain kettle with boiling water and another kettle with syrup.
Cook enough peaches to fill one can and seal immediately.
For plums, follow the same method, ensuring they are ripe but not overly soft.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + syruptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).