Name: Sweet Pickled Beets
Ingredients: beets; 1 cup vinegar; ½ cup water; 2 cups sugar; 1 stick cinnamon; a handful of whole cloves

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 ↓

Sweet Pickled Beets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beets

Cut the tops of the beets about an inch above the beet, being careful not to break the skin.
Wash the beets thoroughly and boil until tender.
Drain the beets, cover with cold water, and rub off the skin.
Cut the beets into slices and place them in fruit jars.

Make and add the syrup

In a separate pot, combine vinegar, water, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves to make a syrup.
Taste the syrup; if it is too strong in vinegar, adjust to your preference.
Fill the jars with the syrup and seal them like any canned fruit.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,187 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beets: Provide the main body and earthy flavor of the pickle.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the syrup.