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Mushroom Pickles

Pickled mushrooms preserved in a spiced vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Select sound mushrooms and cut off the ends of the stems.

  2. Rub the tops with a flannel dipped in salt.

  3. Soak the mushrooms in a mixture of ¾ cup milk and ¼ cup water, then drain.

  4. Place the mushrooms in a stew pan and sprinkle with ½ cup coarse sea salt.

  5. Cover and cook over gentle heat for 5 minutes to draw out water.

  6. Drain the mushrooms on a coarse cloth until cold.

Make the pickle

  1. To prepare the pickle, combine vinegar, mace, cloves, Worcestershire salt, red pepper, and nutmeg in a jar covered with a wet cloth.

  2. Heat the mixture over a very slow fire until the acid is prominent, then remove from heat.

Bottle

  1. Fill small wide-mouthed bottles with mushrooms and pour the pickle over them until filled.

  2. Seal the bottles 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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

Mushrooms
The main ingredient that is salted, softened and preserved in the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its tang.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the mushrooms, firming them and concentrating their flavour.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Adds a pungent, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Drawing water out of the mushrooms. Salting and gently cooking the mushrooms pulls out their water, so the pickle liquid can be absorbed without diluting it. Mushrooms left wet can spoil the pickle, so they should be drained well until cold before bottling.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, vinegar, clove, pepper, nutmeg. 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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