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Mushrooms in Brine

Mushrooms preserved in a brine of water, salt, peppercorns, mace, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Mushrooms in Brine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the mushrooms exactly as for the preceding pickle, and measure them after the stems are taken off.

  2. For each quart, boil together for five minutes two quarts of water, with half a pound of common white salt, a small dessertspoonful of white peppercorns, a couple of blades of mace, and a race of ginger.

  3. Take off the scum thoroughly.

  4. Throw in the mushrooms.

  5. Boil them gently for about five minutes.

Bottle and store

  1. Put them into well-warmed, wide-necked bottles, and let them become perfectly cold.

  2. Pour a little good salad-oil on the top.

  3. Cork them with new corks, and tie bladder over, or cover them with two separate bladders.

Use

  1. When wanted for use, soak the mushrooms in warm water until the brine is sufficiently extracted.

By Eliza Acton. 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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms (in the method)
The main ingredient, which is pickled in the spiced brine and gives the dish its body.
Common white salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the brine, helping preserve the mushrooms.
Ginger (in the method)
Adds warm aroma and spice to the brine.
Mace (in the method)
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the brine.

The step that matters

Boil them gently for about five minutes. Mushrooms cooked hard become tough and shrink, and boiling them gently keeps them tender while still heating them through so they absorb the brine.

“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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