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Pickled Raisins

A sweet and spiced pickled raisin preparation.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Pickled Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine brown sugar and vinegar.

  2. Add cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and mace in a bag.

Pickle the raisins

  1. Heat the mixture, skim off any foam, and pour it over the raisins.

  2. After two days, simmer the mixture over low heat for 15 minutes.

Store

  1. Store the pickled raisins for later use.

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. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the syrup that coats and flavors the raisins.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the raisins.
Large raisins
Form the fruit base, plumping as they absorb the sweet, spiced syrup.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the pickling syrup.
Cloves
Add strong, warm aroma that deepens the spiced flavor of the syrup.

The step that matters

Simmer over low heat. Sugar syrups can scorch or reduce too quickly at high heat. A gentle simmer lets the spices infuse the liquid and lets the raisins absorb it without breaking down or turning bitter.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

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