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Martynia Pickle

A pickled condiment made from young Martynia pods, brine, vinegar, horseradish, allspice, cloves, brown sugar, onions, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Martynia Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pods

  1. Soak the young Martynia pods in strong brine for 7 to 10 days.

  2. Remove the pods and wash them in fresh water.

  3. Soak the pods in vinegar for 2 weeks to remove salt and weedy taste.

  4. Drain the pods well and place them in a jar.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Bruise the allspice and cloves in a mortar.

  2. Slice the onions and horseradish.

  3. Boil the vinegar with horseradish, allspice, cloves, brown sugar, onions, and red pepper.

Pour and pickle

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the prepared Martynia pods.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Horseradish + oniontop 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

Young martynia pods
Are the main vegetable that is pickled and becomes tender and crisp-firm in the brine.
Strong brine
Draws out moisture and salt, firming the pods and preparing them to take up flavour.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pods and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy character.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Horseradish
Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma and heat to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking the pods in vinegar to remove salt and weedy taste. Pods left in the brine too briefly or rinsed too little keep salt and a weedy flavour. The vinegar soak draws these out, so the final pickle tastes clean and balanced rather than salty or bitter.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, horseradish, allspice, clove, sugar, pepper. 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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