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To Pickle Mushrooms

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 or meadow mushrooms and cut the stems close.

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

  3. Soak them in spring water mixed with salt, then drain and dry them with a cloth.

Make the pickling liquid

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

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Pickle and jar

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

  2. Transfer the mushrooms to small jars or warm bottles, dividing the spices evenly.

  3. Seal the jars once the mushrooms are cool.

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

Small wild or meadow mushrooms
Are the main ingredient, cooked briefly so they keep their texture in the vinegar brine.
Pale white wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms during cleaning and helps season them.
Whole white pepper
Adds a mild, warm pungency to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds aromatic warmth that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling the mushrooms. Boiling for too long softens mushrooms and makes them limp, while too short a time leaves them underdone. Size varies, so the 6 to 9 minute window must be judged by the mushrooms' 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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