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Sweet Pickles

Sweet pickles made by boiling fruit with vinegar and cloves, then adding sugar and repeating the process.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickles

  1. Combine the fruit, vinegar, and whole cloves in a large pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and let it sit overnight.

  3. The next morning, drain off the vinegar.

  4. Add 1.5 cups of sugar for every gallon of fruit and bring to a boil again.

  5. Pour the hot mixture over the fruit and cover tightly.

  6. Repeat this process the following morning, covering closely for a few hours to cool thoroughly.

Before you start

  1. If using watermelon rinds, first boil them in water until tender.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
Forms the body of the pickle and absorbs the syrup flavour as it soaks.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Whole cloves
Adds warm, spicy aroma that infuses into the vinegar and fruit.

The step that matters

Covering and cooling after pouring the hot mixture. Sealing the pot while the hot syrup cools keeps steam and aroma in and lets the fruit take up the liquid evenly. Cooling slowly over several hours helps the fruit stay firm and infused rather than cooking further.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. 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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