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Sweet Pickles

A sweet cucumber pickle made with cider vinegar, spices, sugar, and red peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cucumbers in salt and water overnight.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine cider vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, light brown sugar, and red peppers.

  2. Add the cucumbers to the pot and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes.

  4. If the vinegar is too strong, dilute with 1 quart of water.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the pickles themselves, supplying the crisp, bulky body of the finished dish.
Cider vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves the pickles and balances the sugar.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth that defines the sweet pickle style.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrupy brine.

The step that matters

Dilute the vinegar if too strong. Vinegar that is too acidic can make the pickles harsh and sour-tasting. Diluting with water softens the acidity so the sugar and spices come through in balance.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, clove, sugar, pepper. 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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