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Dessert

Sweet Fruit Pickles

A pickled fruit preserve of peaches, pears, apples, or musk melons with cider vinegar, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Sweet Fruit Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pare peaches, pears, and apples; do not divide them.

  2. Cut musk melons into strips, not too ripe.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Boil the cinnamon in the vinegar.

  2. Add two whole cloves to each stick of cinnamon.

Pickle the fruit

  1. Add three and one-half pounds of sugar, one pint of cider vinegar, two ounces of whole cloves, and two sticks of cinnamon to every seven pounds of fruit.

  2. Place the prepared fruit in a stone jar and pour the scalding hot vinegar over it.

  3. Repeat pouring the hot vinegar over the fruit for three mornings.

  4. Simmer the melon strips for thirty minutes slowly in the prepared vinegar, then keep them covered.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

59Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

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

  2. Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 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. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Fruit
Forms the bulk of the pickle and absorbs the spiced syrup as it sits.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and, with the vinegar, helps preserve the fruit.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the fruit and sharpens the sweet flavor.
Whole cloves
Adds warm aromatic spice that flavors the vinegar and fruit.
Cinnamon (in the method)
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Simmer the melon strips gently. Melon is softer and more delicate than the other fruit. Simmering it slowly for thirty minutes keeps it tender without breaking it down into mush, and keeping it covered holds in heat and aroma.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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