Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓
Very Rich Sweet Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Peel and quarter the melons or halve the cucumbers.
Scrape out all the seeds.
Rinse the fruit in clear, fresh water.
Dry the fruit.
Stick cloves and small pieces of cinnamon into the fruit.
Make the syrup
Make a syrup with fine white sugar.
Cook the syrup until skimmed and transparent.
Add the fruit to the syrup.
Cook until the mixture looks transparent.
Transfer the fruit to a glass jar.
Let the syrup thicken.
Mix the thickened syrup with ½ cup of good vinegar.
Pour the boiling mixture over the fruit.
Seal and cool
Cover the jar with a double napkin until it cools completely.
Seal the jar with a cloth dipped in melted beeswax.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Melon + clovetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together232 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Melon + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together241 recipes
Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
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Melon + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together416 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon and sugar 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
- Large green musk-melons or ripe cucumbers
- Form the main body of the pickle and carry the sweet, spiced syrup.
- Fine white sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and, as it cooks, makes the fruit look clear and transparent.
- Good vinegar
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
- Cloves
- Add warm, aromatic spice flavour pressed into the fruit.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm, sweet aromatic flavour pressed into the fruit.
The step that matters
Cooking the fruit until it looks transparent. Sugar must replace the water inside the fruit slowly; if the fruit is cooked too briefly it stays opaque and firm, and if overcooked it turns soft and collapses. Watching for clarity signals that the sugar has penetrated.
Swap the melon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, cinnamon, sugar, vinegar):
- Vanillafits better
- Quincefits better
- Figfits better
- Melonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, cinnamon, sugar, vinegar. 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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