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To Pickle Mushrooms

A method for pickling small button mushrooms in a vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,189 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Cut off the stalks of the mushrooms and wash them in cold water.

  2. Rub the mushrooms with a bit of flannel, then soak them in fresh water until clean.

  3. Boil the mushrooms in a saucepan with fresh cold water for 8-10 minutes.

  4. Strain the water and lay the mushrooms on a cloth to dry.

Pickle and jar

  1. In a pot, boil 1 quart of vinegar with white pepper, allspice, mace, and salt.

  2. Once the vinegar mixture is cold, pour it over the mushrooms in a jar, including the spices.

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 + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. White pepper + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mushroom + allspicetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together717 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Small button mushrooms
Form the body of the pickle and absorb the spiced vinegar as they soften.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.
White pepper
Adds gentle heat and aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Contributes a warm, nutmeg-like aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the vinegar mixture cool fully before pouring it over the mushrooms. Pouring hot vinegar over raw-textured mushrooms can cook and soften them unevenly and change their texture, so cooling it first keeps the mushrooms firmer and more consistent.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, vinegar, allspice, mace):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, vinegar, allspice, 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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