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To Pickle Butternuts

A pickled butternut squash preserved in a spice mixture and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Butternuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the nuts

  1. Gather butternuts when the shell is soft and the outer skin can be pierced with a pin.

  2. Clean the nuts in a tub with enough water to cover them, using a hickory broom to scrub them. Alternatively, scald the nuts and rub off the outer skin.

  3. Soak the nuts in a strong saltwater solution for 9-10 days, changing the water every other day.

  4. Drain and wipe the nuts, piercing each one several times with a large needle.

Pack and pickle

  1. In a bowl, combine the black pepper, ginger root, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and mustard seed; pound to a powder.

  2. Layer the nuts in jars, sprinkling the spice mixture between each layer.

  3. Boil the white wine vinegar for 5 minutes and pour it hot over the nuts.

  4. Seal the jars tightly with corks and leather.

  5. Let the nuts sit for at least two weeks before eating.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Butternut + nutmegtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butternut + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Butternuts
Provide the main vegetable that is softened by salting and then pickled.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidic pickling liquid that preserves the nuts and gives them their sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the nuts and seasons them during the long saltwater soak.

The step that matters

Soaking in saltwater. The soak must be strong and last the full 9-10 days with regular water changes. Salt draws out moisture and bitterness and firms the flesh, so a weak or short soak leaves the nuts less firm and less well seasoned.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut, pepper, ginger, clove, nutmeg, mustard, white wine):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut, pepper, ginger, clove, nutmeg, mustard, white wine. 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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