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Pickled Apples

A preserved apple dish made by simmering apples in a spiced vinegar and sugar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the apples evenly, cut them in halves, and core them.

Make the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar and sugar, and heat until boiling.

  2. Skim the mixture well, then place the spices in a thin muslin bag and add to the vinegar.

  3. Add the apples to the pot and simmer slowly until they are soft.

  4. Remove the apples, boil down the vinegar, and pour it over the fruit.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mace + clovetop 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

Apples
Ripe, hard, sweet fruit that holds its shape while simmering and gives the pickled apples their flavor.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickling liquid its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and helps preserve the fruit.
Mace
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer the apples slowly until soft. Simmering gently softens the apples through without breaking them apart, while a hard boil would likely turn the fruit mushy. Cooking only until tender keeps the pieces intact for pickling.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, vinegar, sugar, clove, allspice, pepper. 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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