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To Pickle Roots

A pickled mixture of carrots, salsify, beet roots, onions, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,377 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Roots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roots

  1. Slice or cut the roots into small pieces.

  2. Slightly boil the roots in vinegar without losing their crispness.

Pack and pickle

  1. In a jar, layer the beet roots and onions alternately.

  2. Boil the vinegar with mixed pepper, ginger, and salt.

  3. Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the beet roots and onions.

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 + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,377 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Ginger + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve the vegetables.
Carrots
Contribute firm crunch and mild sweetness that hold up well in the pickling liquid.
Salsify
Adds a firm, crisp texture and a delicate flavor that absorbs the pickling liquid.
Beet roots
Give the pickle its deep color and an earthy sweetness balanced by the vinegar.
Onions
Add a sharp bite that mellows and turns sweeter as it soaks in the vinegar.
Mixed pepper
Adds warmth and a pungent, spicy aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Slightly boil the roots without losing their crispness. Prolonged heat softens the cell walls and pectin in root vegetables, so the roots turn limp. A brief boil partly cooks them while keeping the crunch that makes a pickle pleasant to eat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, vinegar, pepper, ginger. 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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