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PicKles

A preserved vegetable mixture pickled in vinegar, sugar, spices, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

PicKles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak choice young vegetables in strong brine with 1 piece of alum for 24 hours.

  2. Remove the vegetables and wash them.

Simmer

  1. Cover with a mixture of vinegar and water, along with peppers, cinnamon, and cloves.

  2. Place in a kettle on the back of the stove.

  3. Let simmer for 2 to 3 hours without boiling.

  4. Pour off the vinegar and add fresh vinegar.

Spice and pack

  1. Combine 1 gallon vinegar, 1 pound brown sugar, 1 cup celery seed, 1 cup cloves, 3 bay leaves, 12 small red peppers, and 4 sticks cinnamon in a pot and scald together.

  2. Add 1 piece of alum.

  3. Pour the mixture over the pickles.

  4. Include 3 pounds of tiny white onions uncooked with 500 pickles.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Alum
Firms the vegetables so they stay crisp rather than soft.

The step that matters

Let simmer without boiling. Gentle heat softens the vegetables evenly while keeping them firm. A rolling boil would break down their texture and make the pickles soft.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, pepper, cinnamon, clove, sugar, celery. 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.

More pickles recipes

Cucumber 334Mustard 151Green Tomato 141Mixed 133Sweet 85French 56 See all 17 →

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