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Martynia PICKLEs

A pickled preserve made from young Martynia pods with vinegar, sugar, spices, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Martynia PICKLEs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pods

  1. Select young Martynia pods and pierce them with a nail.

  2. Soak the pods in a brine of 1 teacup salt and 1 gallon water for 3 days, keeping them submerged with a plate.

  3. Drain the pods and place them in a preserving kettle.

  4. Cover the pods with equal parts cider vinegar and water, bring to a boil, then let stand for 30 minutes.

  5. Drain and discard the weakened vinegar.

Make the pickling syrup

  1. Add 1½ times the quantity of pure cider vinegar to the kettle.

  2. For each gallon of vinegar, add 1½ teacups sugar, ½ teacup grated raw onion, ½ teacup grated horseradish, 1 chopped green pepper, ½ teacup white mustard seed, 1 tablespoon prepared mustard, 1 tablespoon whole cloves, 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, and ½ ounce mace.

  3. Tie the spices and other ingredients in a cheesecloth bag and add to the kettle.

  4. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes and pour over the packed Martynia pods in a jar.

Seal and store

  1. Place the spice bag on top, keep it down with a plate, and when cool, seal tightly.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 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

Martynia pods
Main vegetable; the firm, young pods hold their crispness through brining and pickling.
Salt
Draws water out of the pods during the brine, firming their texture and seasoning them.
Cider vinegar
Acid that preserves the pods and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the sweet-sour flavour.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, earthy bite that carries through the pickling liquid.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat that deepens the pickle's flavour.

The step that matters

Soaking the pods in the vinegar and then draining it off. Brining and then discarding the first vinegar removes excess water and bitterness, so the pods stay firm and the fresh vinegar preserves them properly rather than being diluted.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, pepper, mustard, 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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