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Pickled Beets

A pickled beet recipe using vinegar, brown sugar, alum, spices, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Beets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beets

  1. Boil the beets until tender.

  2. Plunge each beet into cold water and twist to remove the skin.

  3. Cut the beets lengthwise into strips.

  4. Place the strips in glass jars, leaving space for the liquid.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, brown sugar, and alum, and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim the mixture, then add cloves, allspice, mustard seeds, and peppercorns in a bag.

  3. Boil again, adding cayenne and salt.

  4. Pour the hot liquid over the beets.

Rest and seal

  1. The next day, drain the syrup, bring it to a boil, and pour it over the beets again.

  2. Seal the jars.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets
Provide the main body, colour and earthy sweetness of the pickle.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the beets and gives the pickle its sharp bite.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Alum, powdered
Helps the beets keep their firm texture during long pickling.
Whole cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot liquid over the beets and resting the next day. The beets must be fully covered by hot, acidic syrup so the vinegar can penetrate and preserve them. Draining and reheating the syrup the next day strengthens the brine and helps prevent spoilage.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, clove, allspice, pepper. 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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