Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Sweet Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the fruit and place it in a jar.
Heat the vinegar with the spices.
Pour the heated vinegar and spices over the fruit and cover the jar tightly.
Cook and pack
The next day, boil the fruit and vinegar mixture until the fruit is tender.
Remove the fruit.
Place the fruit back in the jar.
Boil the juice down slightly.
Strain out the spices using a cloth to prevent discoloration of the fruit.
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.
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 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
- Fruit
- Forms the body of the pickle and becomes tender when simmered in the vinegar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its tang.
The step that matters
Straining out the spices. Spices left in the syrup can stain the fruit and cloud the juice. Straining through a cloth keeps the fruit light in colour and the syrup clear.
“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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