Name: Sweet Pickle Plums
Ingredients: five pounds of sugar; one pint of vinegar to seven pounds of plums; one tablespoonful of ground cinna- mon; one teaspoonful of cloves; one-half pound of sugar; half cupful of vinegar; four quarts of sharp cider vinegar; four ounces of ground mustard; one ounce of white mustard; one ounce of bruised mace; one ounce of bruised ginger; three sticks of horseradish sliced; two ounces tumeric; one cupful of the liquor in which the meat has been boiled; two teaspoonfuls of flour rubbed smooth in a little water; two tablespoonfuls of butter; one pint best part of celery; three tablespoonfuls of salt; one teaspoon ful of cloves; one teaspoonful of allspice; two teaspoonfuls of cinnamon; four cupfuls of vinegar; two tablespoonfuls of salt; two teaspoonfuls of ginger; four tablespoonfuls of sugar; two teaspoonfuls each of cinnamon; one teaspoonful of nutmeg; seven pounds of plums; one-half teaspoonfui of ground cloves; one teacupful of salt

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together446 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Plums: Provide the fruit that softens during boiling and forms the body of the pickle.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit while balancing the vinegar's sharpness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fruit.

Swap the mace

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

Cinnamonfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, plum, clove, cider, mustard, ginger. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
White Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Capers	1 tbsp (9g) drained	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Cider	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0
Horseradish	not in our table	0
Liquor	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

Sweet Pickle Plums