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 ↓
Sweet Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stems from the fruit.
Place the fruit in a stone jar.
Set the jar in a boiler of cold water.
Boil until the juice is well extracted.
Remove the fruit from the jar.
Pour the juice into a kettle.
Make the syrup
Add 3 pounds of sugar for every 7 pounds of fruit.
Skim the mixture well.
Drop the fruit back into the kettle.
Skim again.
Let the mixture boil.
Remove from heat.
Boil the juice for three mornings.
Pickle and store
Pour the boiled juice over the fruit.
Add 1 quart of vinegar, pounded ginger, grated horseradish in muslin bags, cloves, and allspice to taste.
Add bits of broken root ginger.
Tie the jar tightly.
Store in a dark closet.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together625 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Fruit
- Provides the main body and flavor of the pickle, with juice extracted by long gentle heating.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pickle and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the pickle.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aromatic spice flavor to the pickled fruit.
- Cloves
- Adds strong aromatic spice flavor to the pickled fruit.
The step that matters
Boil the juice for three mornings. Repeated boiling over several days concentrates the syrup and kills microbes that could spoil the pickle. Skipping or shortening it leaves the juice more likely to ferment or mold.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cider, vinegar, cinnamon, clove):
- Applefits better
- Quincefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider, vinegar, cinnamon, clove. 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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