Name: Plums
Ingredients: 3 quarts cold water; 1/4 cup vinegar; boiling syrup of sugar

Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Plums

Ingredients

3 quarts cold water
1/4 cup vinegar
boiling syrup of sugar

Directions

Pick plums just before they ripen and cut the stem halfway.
Prick them around the stem with a fork and drop them in cold water.
In a pot, combine cold water and vinegar, then bring to a boil.
As soon as the plums float, remove them from the heat and drain.
Place the plums in a bowl and pour boiling syrup of sugar over them.
Cover and pour the syrup on the plums five times in total.

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.

Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + syruptop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together385 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).