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To Pickle Beets

A method for pickling beets in a vinegar, mace, ginger, horseradish, and pepper brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and pepper 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 ↓

To Pickle Beets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beets

  1. Boil the beets until tender.

  2. Remove the skins and cut the beets into desired shapes, such as wheels.

  3. Place the cut beets into a jar.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a porcelain-lined kettle, combine the vinegar, mace, ginger, and black pepper.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.

  3. Add the horseradish and pour the hot mixture over the beets in the jar.

Rest

  1. Let the jar stand in a cool place for 12 hours 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. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  2. Horseradish + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mace + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Ginger + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together676 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets
Provide the main body, colour and earthy sweetness of the pickle.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the beets and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that mellows as the beets stand.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic bite that complements the sweet beets.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot mixture over the beets. The liquid must be fully boiled before it goes into the jar so the vinegar is hot enough to penetrate the beets and help keep the pickle stable. Pour it while hot so the beets take up the flavour evenly during the resting time.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, horseradish, 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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