Name: Pickled Plums
Ingredients: hard plums; good wine vinegar; spices

Why it works: Plum and wine work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 343 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pickled Plums

Ingredients

hard plums
good wine vinegar
spices

Directions

Wash and dry the plums thoroughly.
Prick each plum several times with a clean skewer.
Pack the plums into wide-necked bottles.
Spice the wine vinegar and bring it to a boil.
Pour the hot vinegar over the plums and let it stand until the next day.
Repeat boiling the vinegar and pouring it over the plums three times.
Cork the bottles and set aside for winter use.

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.

Plum + winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).