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Dessert

Sugar or Vinegar

A preserve of apples, pears, limes, plums, apricots, and vine leaves simmered in water with alum and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sugar or Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the fruit

  1. Place vine leaves under, between, and over the fruit in a preserving kettle.

  2. Add enough water to cover the fruit and cover the kettle tightly.

  3. Set over a gentle fire and let simmer until tender.

  4. Drain off the water.

Green and cool

  1. If the fruit is not a fine green, let it cool.

  2. Add vine leaves and a bit of baking soda.

  3. Set over a slow fire until it begins to simmer.

  4. Spread the fruit out to cool.

  5. Finish as directed.

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. Pear + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Plum + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Apple + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pear + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Apple + plumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Vine leaves
Their tannins help the fruit keep its firmness and texture during cooking.
Alum
Firms the fruit's tissue so it holds its shape rather than turning mushy.
Baking soda
Raises alkalinity, which helps the fruit hold a green colour during simmering.
Apples
Provide the bulk of the fruit and body in the preserve.
Limes
Add sharp acidity and citrus aroma to balance the sweetness of the fruit.
Plums
Contribute fruit body, sweetness and flavour to the preserve.

The step that matters

Set over a slow fire until it begins to simmer. Gentle heat keeps the fruit from breaking down and turning mushy. Overheating softens the cell walls too far, so the pieces lose their shape and colour.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, pear, plum, apricot, nutmeg):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, pear, plum, apricot, nutmeg. 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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