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 ↓
Peach Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Pare the peaches and place them in a stone jar.
Make a syrup by boiling 1 quart of cider vinegar with 3 pints of sugar, then skim.
Pickle the fruit
Pour the boiling syrup over the peaches, repeating daily until the fruit is colored through and the syrup is thick like thin molasses.
A few days before finishing, layer the drained fruit in the jar with bits of cinnamon bark and cloves.
Continue layering fruit and spices until the jar is full.
Scald the syrup each morning for 3-4 days after adding spices, then pour it boiling hot over the fruit.
If the fruit isn't sufficiently cooked, scald it with the syrup the last time.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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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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Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Peaches
- The fruit that is cooked and flavored through repeated soaking in hot syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and thickens it as it is repeatedly boiled and reduced.
- Cider vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the fruit and balances the sweetness of the syrup.
- Cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor that penetrates the fruit during layering.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm, sweet aroma and flavor to the fruit as it sits in the syrup.
The step that matters
Repeated daily scalding of the syrup. Pouring boiling syrup over the fruit each day, and letting it sit between pourings, gradually cooks the fruit and drives sugar into it. Stopping early leaves the fruit underpenetrated and the syrup too thin, so the pickle may not keep or colour properly.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon):
- Applefits better
- Quincefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon. 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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