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To Pickle Young Artichokes

Pickled young artichokes preserved in vinegar with mace, ginger, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pickle Young Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Boil the artichokes in a strong saltwater solution for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Drain them on a wire rack until cool.

  3. Place the artichokes in narrow-topped jars.

Pickle and seal

  1. Boil enough white-wine vinegar to cover the artichokes with 1-2 blades of mace, slices of ginger, and thinly cut nutmeg.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar over the artichokes and seal the jars.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Artichoke + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 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. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Young artichokes
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming tender after brief boiling while keeping their texture.
White-wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the artichokes and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note that infuses into the hot vinegar.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot vinegar over the artichokes. The vinegar must be hot and fully cover the artichokes so the acid penetrates evenly and the jars seal properly. Air pockets or cooled vinegar can leave parts of the artichokes unprotected and open to spoilage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, wine, vinegar, ginger, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, wine, vinegar, ginger, nutmeg. 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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