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 ↓
Peach Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peaches
Carefully place peaches in a stone jar. Cover the peaches with weak brine. Let stand for 24 hours.
Remove peaches from the jar and wipe them dry.
Cook and pickle
Place them in a large pan over heat. Cover peaches with cider vinegar. Add horseradish, mace, cinnamon, oil of cloves, and sugar.
As vinegar warms, turn peaches with a wooden spoon until tender enough to pierce with a needle. Remove tender peaches and place them back in the jar.
Boil the vinegar and spices for 1 hour, then pour over the peaches.
Top the jar with olive oil. The pickle will be ready in a few days.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Horseradish + cinnamontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together515 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together625 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peaches
- Provide the fruit that softens and absorbs the vinegar and spice flavour.
- Cider vinegar
- Provides acidity that preserves the peaches and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
- Olive oil
- Forms a layer on top of the jar that helps seal the pickle from air.
The step that matters
Turning the peaches as the vinegar warms. Peaches must be turned gently until just tender enough to pierce with a needle. Overcooking makes them mushy and cooking too little leaves them firm and under-flavoured, since the fruit needs heat to soften and take up the spiced vinegar.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, cider, vinegar, horseradish, cinnamon, clove, sugar):
- Allspicefits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peach, cider, vinegar, horseradish, cinnamon, clove, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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