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Sweet Grape Pickle

A preserved grape pickle made with grapes, sugar, vinegar, cloves, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Grape Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Remove the skins from the grapes.

  2. Boil the pulps until tender and strain through a sieve.

Cook the pickle

  1. Boil the skins in the vinegar and spices for 2 hours.

  2. Add the pulp and sugar to the boiled skins.

  3. Boil slowly until it reaches a jelly-like consistency.

  4. Pour into bowls or glasses to cool.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Grape + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Grape + allspicetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together753 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Grape + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the fruit pulp and skins that form the body and flavour of the pickle.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps the mixture thicken toward a jelly.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the pickle its tang.
Ground cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Ground allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until it reaches a jelly-like consistency. Sugar and fruit pectin set as water evaporates and the mixture concentrates. Boiling too hard or too briefly can scorch the sugar or leave the pickle runny, so the cook should watch for the thickened, jelly-like texture.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Grapethe original

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