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Ceab-apple Pickle

A pickled apple recipe using apples, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ceab-apple Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a syrup by boiling sugar, vinegar, and spices tied in a muslin bag.

  2. Prepare apples by inserting 3 or 4 cloves into each apple.

  3. Steam the apples until soft.

Simmer and finish

  1. Place the apples in the syrup and let them simmer for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the apples and boil the syrup for an additional 10 minutes.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Apples
Main fruit; steaming and simmering soften it while it keeps its shape in the syrup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the syrup, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the syrup, giving the pickles their tangy flavor.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the syrup as it steeps in the muslin bag.
Cloves
Add pungent aroma, flavoring both the apples and the syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering the apples in the syrup. Simmering too long softens apples until they break down. Removing them before the syrup is boiled further keeps the pieces whole and firm.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

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