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Pickled Blackberries

Pickled blackberries are preserved in sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pickled Blackberries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine sugar, blackberries, vinegar, cinnamon, and cloves in a large pot.

  2. Tie the spices in a cheesecloth bag and add the cheesecloth bag to the pot.

Cook and pickle

  1. Heat the mixture until it scalds but does not boil, allowing the juice to run out.

  2. Once the blackberries look red, skim them into a crock.

  3. Cook the juice down until it is thick and rich.

  4. Pour the thickened juice over the blackberries.

  5. Repeat the cooking process in a week or two if necessary.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out its moisture.
Blackberries
Supply the main fruit flavor, color, and juice that becomes the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that flavors the juice.
Cloves
Adds strong, pungent aroma that flavors the juice.

The step that matters

Heating without boiling. If the mixture boils, the blackberries can break apart and turn cloudy or mushy. Gentle heat that only scalds lets the juice run out slowly while the fruit keeps its shape.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon):

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, 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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