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Pickled Beet-Roots

A preserved beet root dish pickled in a spice-infused vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Beet-Roots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beets

  1. Wash the beet roots in cold water with a soft brush, being careful not to break the skin.

  2. Boil the beet roots in a saucepan of water until tender, then remove and let them cool overnight.

  3. Peel the cooled beet roots and slice them into ½ inch thick rounds, discarding the ends.

  4. Cut the slices into decorative shapes and place them in jars.

Make the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine mace, cloves, peppercorns, coarse sea salt, ginger, horseradish, and vinegar. Boil for 10-15 minutes, skimming off any foam.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then pour it over the beet slices in the jars.

Cover and mature

  1. Replenish any absorbed pickle the next day and cover the jars with bladder and leather.

  2. Let the pickles sit for a month before using.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Clove + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Mace + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Ginger + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together676 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beet roots
Provide the main body, colour and earthy sweetness of the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the beets and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the pickle and helps draw out moisture and preserve the beets.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that balances the sweetness of the beets.

The step that matters

Let the cooled beets absorb the pickle and rest for a month. Vinegar must fully penetrate the beet slices and the flavours need time to mellow. Topping up absorbed liquid keeps the slices submerged, so they do not spoil at the surface.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, ginger, horseradish, vinegar. 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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