Skip to main content
Main

Mushrooms in Brine for Winter Use

Mushrooms preserved in a vinegar and spice brine for winter use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Mushrooms in Brine for Winter Use

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare mushrooms by removing the stems and measuring them.

  2. Boil ½ gallon of water with ½ pound of common white salt, 1 small dessertspoonful of white peppercorns, 2 blades of mace, and 1 piece of ginger for 5 minutes.

  3. Skim off the scum, then add the mushrooms and boil gently for 5 minutes.

Bottle

  1. Transfer mushrooms to wide-necked bottles and let them cool completely.

  2. Pour a little salad oil on top, cork the bottles with new corks, and cover with bladders.

Use

  1. To use, soak mushrooms in warm water until the brine is extracted.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 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

Mushroom buttons
The main ingredient, which is cooked briefly and preserved in the brine.
Common white salt
Seasons the brine and draws moisture out, helping to preserve the mushrooms.
Water
Forms the liquid base of the brine that carries the salt and flavourings.
Salad oil
Forms a layer on the surface that limits contact with air.
White peppercorns
Adds a sharp, aromatic spiciness to the brine.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the brine.

The step that matters

Let the mushrooms cool completely before bottling. Bottling warm mushrooms traps steam, which condenses into water and dilutes the brine. Cooling fully before oiling and corking helps keep the preserved mushrooms firm and the seal reliable.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, white wine, vinegar, ginger, 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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes