Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Pickled Peaches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peaches
Brush the peaches with a soft brush.
Boil the water and salt together until clear, then cool.
Submerge the peaches in the cold brine for 48 hours.
Rinse the peaches in clean water and dry them on a soft towel.
Insert 6 cloves into each peach.
Pickle and seal
Boil enough vinegar to cover the peaches, adding 4 blades of mace and ¼ ounce of stick cinnamon for each quart.
After boiling the vinegar for 15 minutes, add the peaches and remove from heat.
Let the peaches sit in the hot vinegar for 5 minutes.
Transfer the peaches and vinegar into glass jars and seal them airtight.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together625 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peaches
- Provide the fruit that is softened and flavoured by the brine and vinegar.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of and seasons the peaches in the brine.
- Vinegar
- Acidity preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
- Cloves
- Add warm, aromatic spice flavour that penetrates the peach flesh.
The step that matters
Submerging the peaches in the cold brine for 48 hours. Salt draws water out of the fruit and firms the flesh, while the brine seasons it. Too short a soak leaves the peaches bland and soft; the timing controls their texture and flavour.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, vinegar, cinnamon, clove):
- Allspicefits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peach, vinegar, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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