Skip to main content
Main

Sweet Pickle

A preserved fruit made by boiling fruit with sugar and vinegar, then adding spices and vinegar over several days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Remove stems from the fruit and place it in a stone jar.

  2. Set the jar in a boiler of cold water and boil until the juice is well extracted; remove the fruit.

Make the syrup

  1. Put the extracted juice in a kettle with one half-pound of sugar per pound of fruit, one half-ounce of cinnamon boiled in one quart of vinegar, one half-ounce of cloves, and skim well.

  2. Return the fruit to the kettle, skim again, and boil until the mixture boils up, then remove.

Steep and store

  1. Over the next two mornings, boil the juice and pour it over the fruit.

  2. On the third morning, add a pint of vinegar per quart of juice, pounded ginger, grated horseradish in muslin bags, and allspice to taste, then simmer the fruit for a few minutes.

  3. After the process is finished, add bits of broken race ginger and tie the jar tightly.

  4. Keep the jar in a dark closet.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

72Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Fruitnot in our table0
Cidernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. See the original page.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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

Fruit
Forms the body of the pickle and releases juice when boiled.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice flavour to the syrup.
Cloves
Adds aromatic, pungent spice flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling the juice before adding the fruit back. Boiling the juice thoroughly with sugar and vinegar concentrates it and helps preserve the fruit; under-boiling leaves the syrup weak and more prone to spoiling.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

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

You might also like

Ham in CiderHam in Cider10 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes