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Dessert

Sweet Pickled Peaches and Plums

A preserved fruit dish of peaches and plums pickled in a sweet vinegar syrup with cloves and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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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 Pickled Peaches and Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Add 3 ¾ pounds of sugar to 7 pounds of fruit.

  2. Put the sugar into the preserving kettle with 1 quart vinegar, 2 ounces each of cloves, and a stick of cinnamon.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes after the sugar dissolves.

Prepare and cook the fruit

  1. Pare the peaches and insert a clove into each one.

  2. If the skins are left on, brush the down off the peaches and prick the plums with a fork in several places to prevent the skins from cracking when placed in the hot syrup.

  3. Place a few at a time in the boiling syrup and cook until they look clear but are not softened enough to fall apart.

Finish and pour

  1. When all are cooked, continue boiling the syrup until it is reduced nearly half, then pour it over the peaches.

  2. Pickle the plums in the same way.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

65Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
16 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Fruitnot 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 Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. 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. Clove + vinegartop 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
Sweetens the pickle and helps preserve the fruit in the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickling syrup its sharp, preserving character.
Fruit
Forms the body of the pickle, absorbing the spiced syrup as it cooks.
Cloves
Infuse warm, aromatic spice into the peaches and syrup.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the spiced syrup.

The step that matters

Cooking the fruit in the syrup. Fruit cooked too long in boiling syrup softens and falls apart, while too little leaves it firm. Stopping when the fruit looks clear keeps it whole and tender enough to absorb the syrup.

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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