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 ↓
Bottled Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pickles
Pour boiling water over the pickles and let them stand for four hours.
Make the brine
In a pot, combine vinegar, sugar, salt, alum, cinnamon bark, and cloves.
Boil the mixture and pour it over the pickles.
Seal the jars while hot.
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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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,386 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,187 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds seasoning and helps draw flavor into the pickles.
- Pickles
- The main food being pickled and flavored by the hot brine.
The step that matters
Seal the jars while hot. Sealing while the brine and jars are still hot helps create a vacuum as they cool, which keeps air and spoilage microbes out of the pickles.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cinnamon):
- Allspicefits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, 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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