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Dessert

Blackberry Pickles

A pickled blackberry preserve made with sugar, vinegar, cassia buds, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cassia and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 194 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blackberry Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine blackberries, sugar, vinegar, cassia buds, and whole cloves in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Skim out the fruit and continue boiling the juice until it reduces.

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. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + cassiatop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Sugar + cassiatop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries
Provide the fruit flavor, color, and juice that becomes the pickling syrup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates, helps thicken the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that balances the sugar and helps preserve the fruit.
Cassia buds
Contribute a warm, sweet aroma to the syrup.
Whole cloves
Contribute a strong, warm spice aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Reducing the juice. As water evaporates, the sugar and vinegar concentrate, so the syrup thickens and becomes more flavorful. Stop too early and the juice stays thin; go too far and it can turn sticky or syrupy.

Swap the cassia

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

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