Name: Canning Fruits
Ingredients: Fruits (e.g., quinces, pears, citrons, watermelon rinds, plums, cherries, currants); Sugar; Water

Why it works: Pear and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Canning Fruits

Ingredients

Fruits (e.g., quinces, pears, citrons, watermelon rinds, plums, cherries, currants)
Sugar
Water

Directions

Pour hot syrup over the fruit to harden it.
Boil the fruit tender in water or a weak syrup.
Add the remaining sugar after boiling.
If the fruit is too soft, let it stand with sugar to draw out juice.
Place the fruit in the sun for 2-3 hours if needed.
Pour boiling syrup over the fruit afterward.

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.

Pear + plumtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Quince + peartop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together133 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Quince + plumtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together92 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Plum + curranttop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together255 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together101 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).