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Pickled Beets for Eelishes, German Style

Pickled beets prepared with onions, pepper, coriander or cumin, sweetened with sugar, and preserved in cold boiled vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,949 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Pickled Beets for Eelishes, German Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the beets, then peel and slice them into 1/8‑inch thick slices.

Pack the jar

  1. Layer the beet slices in an earthen jar, alternating with sliced onions, pepper, and coriander (or cumin if desired).

  2. Once the jar is full, pour cold boiled vinegar over the beets.

  3. Add 4 ounces of sugar for each quart of vinegar while boiling it.

  4. Cover the jar tightly and store it 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. Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + coriandertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets
Form the main body of the pickle and carry its color and earthy flavor.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the beets and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Onions
Add pungency that softens and mellows as the jar stands.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar to the vinegar. The sugar must be fully dissolved into the vinegar while it boils so the brine is evenly balanced. Undissolved sugar or an uneven brine can leave the sweet-sour balance off across the jar.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, coriander, vinegar, sugar. 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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