Name: Pickling
Ingredients: mushrooms; cold water; coarse sea salt; distilled vinegar (or white-wine vinegar or ale vinegar); mace; cooking oil

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 ↓

Pickling

Ingredients

Directions

Soak mushrooms in cold water to retain their color.
Add a handful of coarse sea salt.
Cover and heat until the liquid is drawn out.
Drain mushrooms between two clean cloths until cool.
Add 1 teaspoon of cooking oil to each bottle.
Seal bottles tightly and store in a cool place.
If using white-wine vinegar or ale vinegar, boil it with a little mace and salt.

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.

Mushroom + vinegartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,070 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Mushroom + macetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,529 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,415 recipes