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Sweet Pickles

A sweet pickle made by boiling cucumbers in a vinegar and spice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cucumbers in salt and water overnight.

Make the brine

  1. Combine cider vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, light brown sugar, and red peppers in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. If the vinegar is too strong, dilute with 1 quart of water.

Cook and store

  1. Add the cucumbers and boil for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Store the pickles in the cold vinegar.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp-textured body of the pickle that absorbs the spiced brine.
Cider vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp tang.
Light brown sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness and adds a slight molasses depth.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aromatic spice flavor to the brine.
Cloves
Contributes strong aromatic spice flavor to the brine.
Allspice
Adds warm, peppery aromatic flavor to the brine.

The step that matters

Checking the vinegar strength before adding the cucumbers. Vinegar that is too strong can make the pickles harsh and overly sharp. Diluting it with water before adding the cucumbers lowers the acidity so the flavor is more balanced, and the cucumbers then take on the spice more evenly.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

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