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Dessert

Sweet Pickles

A pickled grape preserve made by simmering grapes in a sweet vinegar and sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil vinegar and sugar together gently for 10 minutes.

  2. Add grapes and let simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Pour mixture into a colander set in a pan to drain for a few moments.

Pack and reheat

  1. Place grapes in a jar.

  2. Return syrup to the fire with spices tied in muslin.

  3. Boil syrup for 10 minutes.

  4. Pour syrup over grapes in the jar.

  5. Drain syrup.

  6. Boil the drained syrup.

  7. Pour hot syrup back over grapes.

Seal and store

  1. Seal the jar.

  2. Store the jar in a cool place.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Grape + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Grape + allspicetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together753 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Form the main body of the pickle and absorb the sweet-sour syrup as it steeps.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and, with the vinegar, helps preserve it.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the grapes.
Whole mixed spices
Flavour the syrup with aroma while it is infused in muslin and then removed.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup back over the grapes. The syrup must be boiling hot when it returns to the jar so the grapes are heated through and the seal is more likely to keep. Letting it cool before pouring risks spoilage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, sugar, vinegar, clove, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, sugar, vinegar, clove, allspice. 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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