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To Pickle Beet Root

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Beet Root

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the beet roots until three-quarters cooked, then slice them into 2-inch thick pieces.

  2. In a pot, combine vinegar, allspice, cloves, mace, black pepper, horseradish, onions, shallots, pounded ginger, coarse sea salt, and bay leaves.

  3. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes, then strain it.

  4. Once the pickle is cold, add a little bruised cochineal.

  5. Place the beet slices into jars, pour the pickle over them, add a small amount of sweet oil on top, and seal the jars tightly.

  6. To serve, mix sweet oil, mustard, some of the pickling liquid, and a little sifted sugar.

  7. Lay the beet slices in a deep plate and pour the mixture over them.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Horseradish + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, allspice, clove, pepper, horseradish, onion, shallot):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice, clove, pepper, horseradish, onion, shallot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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