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Pickled Prunes

Pickled prunes are prunes preserved in a sweet and spiced vinegar solution.

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 ↓

Pickled Prunes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the prunes and soak them overnight.

  2. Drain the prunes, saving ¼ cup of the soaking water.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine the prunes, reserved water, cinnamon, vinegar, cloves, sugar, allspice, and bay leaf.

  2. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes until the fruit is tender.

  3. Drain the prunes and return the juice to the heat.

  4. Boil the juice uncovered until it thickens slightly.

  5. Pour the thickened juice over the prunes and serve cold with meat.

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. Clove + allspicetop 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. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

Prunes
Main fruit; softens during simmering and becomes tender in the spiced syrup.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickling flavour and helps preserve the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the spiced syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling the juice uncovered until it thickens slightly. Boiling off water concentrates the sugar and vinegar, so the juice becomes a syrup that clings to the fruit. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery; boiling too long can make it overly sticky or syrupy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

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