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Asparagus Pickled

A pickled asparagus dish preserved in a vinegar and salt brine with nutmeg, mace, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Asparagus Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut and wash the green heads of the asparagus.

  2. Soak them in cold water for 2-3 hours.

  3. Scald the asparagus carefully in salt water.

  4. Lay them on a cloth to cool.

Make and rest the pickle

  1. Prepare a pickle of vinegar and salt, and boil it.

  2. For 1 gallon of pickle, add 2 nutmegs, ¼ ounce mace, and ¼ ounce whole white pepper.

  3. Pour the hot pickle over the spices.

  4. Cover the jar with a thick cloth and let it stand for a week.

  5. Boil the pickle again.

  6. After another week, boil it a third time.

  7. When cold, cover the jar tightly.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Asparagus + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Asparagus + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Green asparagus heads
Form the main body of the pickle and carry its flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the pickle and helps draw out and firm the vegetable.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickle.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma that complements the nutmeg.
White pepper
Adds gentle, sharp spice warmth to the pickle.

The step that matters

Scalding the asparagus. Scalding briefly softens the stalks and sets their colour, so they take up pickle evenly. Overcooking makes them limp and mushy, while undercooking leaves them tough and raw-tasting.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, nutmeg, mace, white 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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