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To Pickle Mushrooms

A pickled mushroom recipe using wild meadow mushrooms, vinegar, salt, spices, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg 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 ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Select the smallest wild meadow mushrooms and cut the stems off close.

  2. Clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth dipped in fine salt.

  3. Soak them in spring water mixed with a large spoonful of salt, then drain quickly.

  4. Lay the mushrooms on a soft cloth to dry.

Make the pickle and pack the jars

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar, salt, white pepper, ginger, cayenne, mace, and nutmeg (if using).

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the mushrooms and boil for 6 to 9 minutes, adjusting time for size.

  4. Transfer the mushrooms to small stone jars or warm wide-necked bottles, dividing the spices evenly.

  5. Seal the jars or bottles to protect from air.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 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

Wild meadow mushrooms
Provide the main body of the pickle, firm enough to hold their texture after boiling in vinegar.
Pale white wine vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, its acidity keeping the pickled mushrooms stable and tangy.
Salt
Seasons the brine and helps draw moisture out during cleaning and soaking.
White pepper
Adds a mild, warm heat that flavours the vinegar brine.

The step that matters

Boiling the mushrooms for 6 to 9 minutes. Boiling too briefly leaves the mushrooms undercooked and less safe to keep, while boiling too long makes them soft and mushy. Smaller mushrooms need less time, so timing should follow their size.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, white wine, vinegar, white pepper, ginger, pepper, mace):

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

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