Name: Plums, to Pickle Like Olives
Ingredients: unripe plums; vinegar; salt water; fennel seed; dill

Why it works: Fennel and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Plums, to Pickle Like Olives

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine vinegar, salt water, fennel seed, and dill to taste.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the plums and let it boil again.
Remove from heat and let it cool.
Transfer the plums into jars for storage.

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.

Fennel + dilltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Plum + fenneltop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together83 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Vinegar + dilltop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together659 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Plum + dilltop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together32 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).