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Mushroom Buttons Pickle

A pickled condiment made from mushroom buttons, vinegar, salt, spices, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Buttons Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Combine the mushroom buttons and vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt, white peppercorns, whole ginger, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool before transferring to sterilized jars.

  5. Seal the jars and store in a cool, dark place.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Mushroom + gingertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together867 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Mushroom + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,988 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mushroom buttons
Provide the main body of the pickle, absorbing the vinegar and seasonings as they simmer.
Pale white wine vinegar
Acts as the acidic pickling liquid that preserves and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
White peppercorns
Add a sharp, woody heat that infuses the vinegar during simmering.
Whole ginger
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice that flavors the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering the mushrooms. Simmering for the stated 10 minutes softens the mushrooms and lets the vinegar and spices penetrate. Boiling too hard or too long can make mushrooms rubbery and cloud the liquid, so keep the heat gentle once it has been reduced.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, white wine, vinegar, ginger. 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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