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To Pickle Mushrooms

This recipe pickles small button mushrooms in vinegar with mace and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,070 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and wipe the mushrooms.

  2. Soak the mushrooms in cold water.

Cook

  1. Place the mushrooms in a saucepan with a little salt.

  2. Cover the mushrooms with distilled vinegar and simmer for a few minutes.

Bottle

  1. Transfer the mushrooms to bottles with the blades of mace.

  2. Once cooled, cork the bottles tightly.

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. Mushroom + vinegartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mushroom + macetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,529 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Small button mushrooms
Main ingredient that becomes tender and absorbs the vinegar and seasoning as it pickles.
Distilled vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickle its sharp flavour and helps preserve the mushrooms.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, vinegar. 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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