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Dessert

Pickled Blackberries

Pickled blackberries are preserved in a sugar and vinegar solution with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Blackberries

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and vinegar. Add allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for 15 minutes.

Pickle and jar

  1. Add the blackberries and cook for 10 minutes without boiling.

  2. Pour the mixture into jars and seal.

  3. The pickled blackberries are ready for use.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Blackberries
Provide the fruit that is pickled and gives the dish its main flavour and colour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that flavours the fruit and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Cook the blackberries without boiling. Boiling the berries hard can break them down and make them mushy. Gentle heat for 10 minutes keeps their shape while letting them absorb the spiced syrup.

“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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