Name: Sweet Pickles
Ingredients: Peaches, pears, or apples (whole); Whole cloves; Cinnamon; Vinegar

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Peaches, pears, or apples (whole)
Whole cloves
Cinnamon
Vinegar

Directions

Pare the peaches, pears, or apples, leaving them whole.
Stick 2 whole cloves into each piece of fruit.
Boil cinnamon in vinegar.
Place the prepared fruit in a jar and pour the scalding hot vinegar over it.
Repeat this process for 3 mornings.
For musk melons, cut into strips and simmer in the prepared vinegar for 30 minutes.
Keep the melons closely covered to preserve them.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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).
Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Peach + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together348 recipes

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