Name: Peaches with Cloves
Ingredients: 6 whole cloves per peach; vinegar

Why it works: Clove and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 280 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Peaches with Cloves

Ingredients

6 whole cloves per peach
vinegar

Directions

Prepare

Insert 6 whole cloves into each peach.
Pour hot vinegar over the peaches.
Cover the vessel and set it in a cool place for 8 to 10 days.

Reheat and pack

Drain off the vinegar, boil and skim it again.
Pour hot vinegar over the peaches a second time.
Once cold, pack the peaches into jars for storage.

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.

Clove + peachtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together280 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Peach + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together348 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Peaches (in the method): Provide the fruit that is preserved and softened in the spiced vinegar.
Cloves: Add a warm, aromatic spice flavour that penetrates the fruit over time.
Vinegar: Acts as the preserving liquid, adding acidity that gives the peaches their tang.