Name: Sweet Pickle Fruit
Ingredients: peaches; sugar; water; vinegar; spices (in a muslin bag)

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sweet Pickle Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Fill jars with peaches and sugar, leaving room for two more peaches and juice.
Fill a pitcher with the same proportion of peaches and sugar, and place it in the oven with the jars.
Fill the hot jars to overflowing and screw the covers on tightly.
Store the jars in a cool place.
If there is undissolved sugar, lay the jar on its side for a few days or add 1 tablespoon of water before filling.
Place a perforated shelf in the oven and a large meat pan to hold the jars.
Cook the jars for 2 hours, but they can remain for up to 4 hours without injury.
Add vinegar and a muslin bag of spices to each jar for flavor.

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 + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together348 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).