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Dessert

Pickled Grapes

Pickled grapes preserved in a spiced sugar syrup.

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

Pickled Grapes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar, water, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice to make a syrup.

  2. Let the syrup cool.

Prepare the grapes

  1. Look over the grapes carefully.

  2. Cut the grapes into small bunches.

Pickle and store

  1. Place the grapes in jars.

  2. Pour the cooled syrup over the grapes.

  3. Seal the jars and store them for one month before using.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 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 + grapetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Grapes
The fruit being pickled; it absorbs sweetness and spice from the syrup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and forms the syrup that preserves the grapes.
Whole cloves
Add warm, pungent aroma to the syrup and grapes.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that flavours the syrup and grapes.
Allspice
Adds a blended warm aroma that flavours the syrup and grapes.

The step that matters

Pour the cooled syrup over the grapes. Syrup that is still very hot can soften the grapes and cook them, leaving them mushy. Letting the syrup cool first keeps the grapes firm while they take on flavour.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Grapethe original

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