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To Pickle Mushrooms

A pickled mushroom recipe using vinegar, spices, lemon, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, white pepper, ginger, mace, shallots, and garlic; boil for 10 minutes and let cool.

Prepare and cook the mushrooms

  1. Peel fresh button mushrooms, wash them clean, and strain.

  2. In a stewpan, add mushrooms, lemon juice, and salt; cover and heat until the mushrooms release their liquid.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer the mushrooms and their liquid into jars and cover with the pickling liquid.

  2. Seal jars with a bladder and white leather to keep them airtight.

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 + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh button mushrooms
The main ingredient; they release liquid when heated with salt and lemon juice.
Double distilled white wine vinegar
Acidic base of the pickling liquid that preserves the mushrooms and gives them their sharp flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the mushrooms and supports the pickled flavor.
Shallots
Add savory, mildly sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Heating the mushrooms until they release their liquid. Heating with salt draws out moisture from the mushrooms. Overheating can make them tough and rubbery, while underheating leaves them watery and less receptive to the pickling liquid.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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