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To Pickle Beet-root

This recipe pickles beetroot in vinegar, salt, and cayenne or white peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Pickle Beet-root

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beetroot

  1. Boil the beetroot until tender, then let it cool completely.

  2. Peel and slice the beetroot.

Pickle

  1. Place the slices in a jar and cover them with boiled vinegar that has cooled.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper or white peppercorns to the vinegar.

  3. Let it sit; it will be ready for use soon.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beetroot (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its deep colour and earthy sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve the beetroot.

The step that matters

Cover the beetroot with cooled vinegar. Vinegar that is still hot can partly cook the slices and soften their texture, so letting it cool first keeps the beetroot firm and crisp while it pickles.

“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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