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Pickled Gkapes

A pickled grape recipe using vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cassia, and cloves.

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

Pickled Gkapes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Remove all imperfect and broken grapes.

  2. Divide the bunches for closer packing.

  3. In an earthen jar, layer grapes and green grape leaves.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Combine vinegar, sugar, and spices in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for a few minutes.

  3. Let the mixture cool completely.

Pour and pack

  1. Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the grapes.

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. Cinnamon + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 grapes
Provide the fruit that is pickled, keeping its flesh firm and its flavor tart-sweet.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the grapes and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy character.
White sugar
Sweetness balances the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the pickling liquid.
Cinnamon stick
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.
Whole cloves
Add pungent, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely before pouring. Pouring hot liquid over fresh grapes can soften their skins and cook the fruit, so the vinegar should be fully cooled before it goes over the grapes.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cassia, 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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