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Sweet Pickles

A pickled cucumber recipe using vinegar, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak cucumbers in salt and water overnight.

Simmer the pickles

  1. Combine vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, brown sugar, and red peppers in a pot.

  2. Add cucumbers to the pot and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil for 2-3 minutes.

  4. If vinegar is too strong, add 1 quart of water.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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

Cucumbers
The main vegetable, which takes on the sweet, spiced flavour of the liquid as it cooks.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickles their sharp, tangy flavour and helps preserve them.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and flavour to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Adds strong, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Checking the vinegar strength. Vinegar that is too strong can make the pickles harsh and sour. Adding water dilutes the acidity so the sugar and spices come through and the flavour is balanced.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, clove, sugar, pepper. 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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