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To Pickle Mushrooms

A method for pickling small wild meadow 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 meadow mushrooms and cut the stems close.

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

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

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

Pickle and pack

  1. Heat nearly a quart of white wine vinegar with salt, white pepper, ginger, cayenne, mace, and nutmeg.

  2. Boil the mixture, then add the mushrooms and boil for 6 to 9 minutes until tender.

  3. If the mushrooms are uneven in size, boil the larger ones for 2 minutes before adding the smaller ones.

  4. Transfer the mushrooms to small jars, dividing the spices equally.

  5. 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

Small wild meadow mushrooms
Provide the main texture and body of the pickle.
White wine vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.

The step that matters

Boiling the mushrooms in the vinegar. Boiling for too long makes mushrooms soft and rubbery, while too short leaves them undercooked. Mushrooms of mixed size need the larger ones started first so all reach tenderness together.

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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