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Pickled Beet Root

Pickled beet root is beet slices pickled in a vinegar, pepper, ginger, and salt brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Beet Root

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beetroot and onions

  1. Boil the beet root until tender, then slice it.

  2. Layer the sliced beet root and Spanish onions in a jar.

Make and pour the pickle

  1. In a pot, boil 1 quart of vinegar with 1 ounce of black pepper, ½ ounce of ginger, and salt to taste.

  2. Allow the vinegar mixture to cool, then pour it over the beet root and onions in the jar.

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. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beet root
Forms the main body of the pickle and provides its colour and earthy flavour.
Spanish onions
Adds sweetness and a sharp bite that softens as it sits in the brine.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
Black pepper
Adds a sharp, warm heat and aroma to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds a fresh, spicy aroma that complements the beetroot.

The step that matters

Let the vinegar mixture cool before pouring. Pouring hot liquid over the beetroot and onions can soften them too much and cause the jar to crack. Cooling first keeps the vegetables firm and crisp while they pickle.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, 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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