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To Tickle Mushrooms

A pickled mushroom recipe using vinegar, salt, pepper, ginger, cayenne, mace, and nutmeg.

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 Tickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

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

  3. Soak the mushrooms in spring water mixed with 1 tablespoon of salt, then drain quickly.

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

Pickle and jar

  1. In a pot, combine 1 quart white wine vinegar, 1 heaped teaspoon of salt, whole white pepper, ginger, cayenne, and mace.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the mushrooms and boil for 6 to 9 minutes until tender.

  4. For larger mushrooms, boil them for 2 minutes before adding the smaller ones.

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

  6. Seal the jars once the mushrooms are completely 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

Wild meadow mushrooms
Provide the main ingredient, whose firm flesh becomes tender in the hot pickling liquid.
Pale white wine vinegar
Acts as the pickling liquid, preserving the mushrooms and giving them a sharp acidity.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture from the mushrooms during cleaning and seasons them.

The step that matters

Seal the jars only once the mushrooms are completely cool. Sealing hot jars traps steam and heat, which can soften the mushrooms and weaken the seal, so they should be fully cool before closing.

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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