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Preserved Marinade

A liquid preservative made from wine, water, vegetables, lemon, salt, and boric acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Preserved Marinade

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large pot, combine 3 quarts of white wine and 9 quarts of water.

  2. Add carrots, celery, and shredded garlic; cook for 30 minutes.

Finish the marinade

  1. Remove the vegetables and add 5 quarts of white wine, sliced lemon, and 1 pound of coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, then strain the mixture.

  3. While hot, stir in 1 ounce of boric acid.

  4. Allow to cool before using.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Garlic + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,893 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Carrot + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

White wine
Provides acidity and the liquid base that carries the flavours of the other ingredients.
Carrots
Add mild sweetness and aromatic flavour to the liquid as they cook.
Celery
Adds savoury, herbal aroma to the base.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows during cooking.
Sliced lemon
Adds bright acidity and citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Stirring in the boric acid while hot. Dissolving a solid is faster and more complete in hot liquid than in cool liquid, so adding the boric acid while the mixture is still hot helps it disperse evenly before the liquid cools.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, carrot, celery, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, carrot, celery, lemon. 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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