Name: Blackberries for Pies
Ingredients: 7 pounds blackberries; 1 quart vinegar; 4 pounds sugar

Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Blackberries for Pies

Ingredients

7 pounds blackberries
1 quart vinegar
4 pounds sugar

Directions

Prepare

Pour the blackberries into a large container.

Make the syrup and pack

In a pot, boil the vinegar and sugar together until the sugar dissolves.
Pour the hot mixture over the blackberries.
Store the blackberries in a jar.

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.

Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries: Provide the main fruit flavor and color of the filling.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the fruit.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

“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.