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Dessert

German Pickle

A sweet and spicy peach pickle made with vinegar, sugar, spices, and peaches, boiled and skimmed until fermentation stops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

German Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the vinegar and sugar.

  2. Add the white mustard seed, mace, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon.

  3. Stir in the peaches and bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Boil until the fruit is soft, then skim the syrup every other day until fermentation is no longer a concern.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + peachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 gives the pickle its tang and helps keep it stable.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness and helps thicken the syrup around the fruit.
Peaches
Form the body of the pickle, softening as they cook and absorbing the spiced syrup.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, savoury aroma that deepens as the spices steep in the hot syrup.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the spiced syrup.
Ginger
Adds a bright, peppery aroma that complements the fruit and spices.

The step that matters

Skimming the syrup every other day. Foam and scum can form on the surface while the pickle rests. Regular skimming removes it before it spoils the syrup. The vinegar and sugar help limit fermentation, but the surface still needs checking until fermentation is no longer a concern.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, mustard, clove, ginger, cinnamon, peach. 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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