Why it works: Mushroom and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,663 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
To Pickle Mushrooms White
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
Take small fresh-gathered button mushrooms, peel them carefully with a penknife, and cut off the stems.
Throw the mushrooms into salt and water as you do them.
Put them into a porcelain skillet of fresh water, cover it closely, and set it over a quick fire.
Boil as fast as possible for seven or eight minutes, not more.
Take out the mushrooms and drain them.
Spread them on a clean board, with the bottom or hollow side of each mushroom turned downwards.
While they are hot, sprinkle them over with salt.
Pickle in a jar
When they are cold, put them into a glass jar with slight layers of mace and sliced ginger.
Fill up the jar with cold cider vinegar.
Put a spoonful of sweet oil on the top of each jar, and cork it closely.
Stew in ale vinegar
Take a quart of large mushrooms and, having trimmed off the stalks, rub them with a flannel cloth dipped in salt.
Lay them in a pan of ale vinegar for a quarter of an hour, and wash them about in it.
Put them into a sauce-pan with a quart of ale vinegar, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of allspice and whole pepper, and a teaspoonful of salt.
Set the pan over coals, let the mushrooms stew slowly for ten minutes, keeping the pan well covered, then take them off.
Let them get cold by degrees.
Put them into small bottles with the ale vinegar strained from the spice and poured upon them.
Test and finish
Boil an onion with the mushrooms; if it turns black or blueish, discard the mushrooms.
Stir them with a silver spoon.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Mushroom | 1/2 cup sliced (35g) | 15 |
| Clove | 1 tsp ground (2g) | 7 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,663 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
- Mushrooms
- Main ingredient; boiling and stewing soften them so they take up the pickling liquid.
- Ale vinegar (in the method)
- Acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
- Cider vinegar (in the method)
- Acidity in the jar that preserves the mushrooms and sharpens their flavour.
- Cloves
- Warm aromatic spice that flavours the pickling liquid.
- Mace (in the method)
- Warm aromatic spice that adds fragrance to the jarred mushrooms.
The step that matters
Boil fast for seven or eight minutes, not more. A short, hard boil cooks the mushrooms through while keeping them firm. Longer cooking breaks down their cell walls, leaving them soft and limp, and they then absorb the vinegar too readily.
“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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