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Pickled Mushrooms

Pickled button mushrooms preserved in vinegar with mace, pepper, and salt, served as a condiment or sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 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 ↓

Pickled Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Choose some nice young button mushrooms for pickling.

  2. Rub off the skin with a piece of flannel and salt.

  3. Cut off the stalks; if very large, take out the red inside, and reject the black ones, as they are too old.

Cook and pickle

  1. Put them in a stewpan, sprinkle salt over them, with pounded mace and pepper in the above proportion.

  2. Shake them well over a clear fire until the liquor flows, and keep them there until it is all dried up again.

  3. Add as much vinegar as will cover them; let it simmer for 1 minute.

  4. Store them away in stone jars for use.

  5. When cold, tie down with bladder and keep in a dry place.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Rub the buttons with a piece of flannel and salt, to take off the skin.

  2. Cut off the stalks.

  3. Put them in a stewpan with the above ingredients, previously kneading together the butter and flour.

  4. Boil the whole for about ten minutes, stirring all the time.

  5. Pour some of the sauce over the fowls, and serve the remainder in a tureen.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

72Calories
1 gProtein
6 gFat
3 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Mushroom + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,988 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mushroom buttons
Form the main body of the dish, absorbing the seasoning and vinegar during cooking.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Butter and flour (in the method)
Kneaded together to thicken the sauce into a smooth, cohesive body.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its sharpness.

The step that matters

Drying the mushrooms over a clear fire. Shaking them until the liquor flows and then fully dries it out concentrates flavour and removes excess moisture; too little drying leaves them watery and prone to spoiling in storage, while overheating can scorch them.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, cream, pepper, vinegar, nutmeg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, cream, pepper, vinegar, 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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