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Dessert

To Sweet-Pickle Fruit and Berries

A sweet pickle made by boiling fruit and berries with vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

To Sweet-Pickle Fruit and Berries

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the fruit and berries by washing them thoroughly.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, sugar, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and ginger.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Cook and jar

  1. Add the prepared fruit and berries to the pot.

  2. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the fruit is tender.

  3. Transfer the mixture to sterilized jars and seal.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and adds sweetness while helping preserve the fruit.
Fruit and berries of choice
Form the main body of the pickle and soften as they simmer in the syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering until the fruit is tender. Simmering too briefly leaves fruit firm and underflavoured, while overcooking turns it mushy. Fruit of different firmness softens at different rates, so check it as it cooks.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Marjoramfits less well

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