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To Pickle Barberries

A pickled barberry condiment made by boiling vinegar, water, and sugar with barberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

To Pickle Barberries

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

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

  2. Add the whole barberries to the mixture.

  3. Boil the mixture, skimming off any scum.

  4. Continue boiling until it reaches a fine color.

Strain and seal

  1. Let it cool, then strain through a coarse cloth.

  2. Pour the clear liquid into glasses and seal them.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

White wine vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the barberries and gives the pickle its tang.
Coarse sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's sharpness and helps preserve the fruit.
Barberries
Supply the tart fruit flavor that the sweet-sour liquid is built around.

The step that matters

Skimming off any scum while boiling. Scum rising during boiling carries impurities that can cloud the liquid and spoil its flavor. Removing it keeps the pickle clear and clean-tasting.

“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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