Name: To Pickle Mushrooms
Ingredients: 9 quarts of mushrooms; 1 tablespoon ground mace; 2 teaspoons ground cloves; 2 teaspoons ground allspice; 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 tablespoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; boiling vinegar

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 ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash and peel the mushrooms.

Pack the jars

Place the mushrooms in jars in layers. Sprinkle spices over each layer as you add them.
Cover the mushrooms with boiling vinegar.
Seal the jars tightly.

Rest

Let them sit for two weeks before using.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,189 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Are the main ingredient, becoming tender and absorbing the vinegar and spices as they pickle.
Vinegar: Acidity preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavor.
Ground cloves: Add warm, aromatic flavor that deepens during the resting period.
Ground allspice: Contributes warm, aromatic flavor to the spice blend.
Ground mace: Adds a warm, slightly sweet aromatic flavor to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Cover the mushrooms fully with boiling vinegar. Vinegar's acidity is what preserves the mushrooms. If they are not fully submerged, parts can be exposed to air and spoil, so the vinegar must cover them completely before sealing.

Swap the mace

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

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, clove, allspice, pepper, vinegar. 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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To Pickle Mushrooms