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Mushroom Pickle

A pickled mushroom recipe using vinegar, spices, and wine.

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 ↓

Mushroom Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare mushrooms by laying them in a soft cloth to dry.

Make the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine wine vinegar, salt, white pepper, ginger, cayenne, mace, and nutmeg.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

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

Jar and store

  1. Transfer mushrooms to small stone jars or warm wide-necked bottles, dividing spices equally.

  2. Seal jars with corks or tie with skins and paper.

  3. Store in a dry place, protected from frost.

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

Mushroom buttons
Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing the spiced vinegar as they cook briefly.
Pale white wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic note that flavours the vinegar during the boil.
White pepper
Contributes a gentle, sharp heat and aroma to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling the mushrooms. Boiling for too long softens mushrooms and makes them spongy, while too short a boil leaves them undercooked and less safe to keep. Size changes how quickly heat reaches the centre, so the time should be adjusted accordingly.

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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