Name: Plum Buds, to Pickle
Ingredients: plum buds; salt; white-wine vinegar; mace; white pepper

Why it works: Mace and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Plum Buds, to Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Place the plum buds in a pot of hot salted water and simmer gently until soft.
Strain the liquid and let the buds cool completely.
Boil enough white-wine vinegar to cover the buds and season with mace and white pepper to taste.
Pour the vinegar over the buds and let them sit for eight or nine days.
Afterward, boil the buds in the vinegar until they turn green.
Transfer the buds to bottles, cover tightly when cool, and store for later use.

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.

Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,695 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Plum + winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Vinegar + white peppertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,154 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).