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 ↓
Sweet Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Pare the cucumbers, cut out the seeds, and slice them into strips.
Soak the cucumber strips in weak brine for 24 hours.
Drain and soak the cucumbers in equal parts vinegar and water for another 24 hours.
Make the sweetened vinegar and cook
Prepare sweetened vinegar by boiling together 1 quart of vinegar, 3 pounds of coffee sugar, a tablespoon of ground cinnamon in a cloth, and a few whole cloves until tender.
Cook the cucumbers in the sweetened vinegar until tender.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cucumber + cinnamontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together874 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Cucumber + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,319 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Ripe cucumbers
- Form the pickle itself; their firm flesh softens and takes on the syrup's flavour during cooking.
- Coffee sugar
- Provides sweetness and, with the vinegar, the preserving syrup that gives the pickle its body.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickles.
- Weak brine
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture before the pickling liquid is added.
The step that matters
Cook the cucumbers in the sweetened vinegar until tender. Cooking too briefly leaves the cucumbers firm and under-flavoured, while overcooking makes them soft and mushy. Checking for tenderness at intervals lets the cook stop at the right point, as the cucumbers keep softening as they cool in the syrup.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, coffee, sugar, cinnamon, clove):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, coffee, sugar, cinnamon, 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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