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To Pickle Beet-root

A method for pickling beetroot using vinegar, salt, cayenne or white peppercorns, and optional onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Beet-root

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beetroot

  1. Boil the beetroot until tender, then let it cool completely.

  2. Peel and slice the beetroot.

  3. Place the beetroot slices in a jar.

Pickle

  1. Cover the slices with boiled vinegar that has cooled.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper or white peppercorns.

  3. Optionally, add a few small boiled onions for flavor.

  4. Seal the jar and let it sit until ready to use.

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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. 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

Beetroot (in the method)
Forms the main body of the pickle and supplies its colour and earthy flavour.
Common vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the beetroot and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the pickle and helps draw out flavour from the beetroot.

The step that matters

Let the vinegar cool before pouring it over the slices. Hot vinegar can soften the beetroot slices and cook them further, changing their texture, so the vinegar should be boiled and then cooled first.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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