Name: Spiced Peaches and Plums
Ingredients: 1 peck of peaches, peeled; 3 pints of vinegar; 3.5 pounds of sugar; 3 nutmegs, grated or broken up; 1.5 ounces of cloves; 1 ounce of cinnamon

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Peaches and Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Place the peeled peaches in a jar.
Steep the spices in the peaches or tie them in bags.
Boil the sugar and vinegar together for a few minutes.
Pour the hot mixture over the peaches.
Repeat this process for three consecutive days.
On the fourth day, add the peaches and boil all together for 10 minutes.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together625 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together280 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Quincefits better
Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.