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To Pickle Mushrooms

A method for pickling small button mushrooms in a seasoned vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Clean the mushrooms by cutting off the stems and wiping them with a damp cloth dipped in salt.

  2. Soak the cleaned mushrooms in spring water mixed with salt, then drain and dry them with a soft cloth.

Pickle and bottle

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar, salt, white pepper, ginger, cayenne, mace, and nutmeg.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the mushrooms and boil for 6 to 9 minutes until tender.

  3. If mushrooms are uneven in size, boil larger ones for 2 minutes before adding smaller ones.

  4. Transfer the mushrooms to small jars or warm wide-necked bottles, dividing the spices evenly among them.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Small buttons of wild or meadow mushrooms
Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing the spiced vinegar and firming as they cook.
Pale white wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mushrooms and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Ginger, sliced or lightly bruised
Adds warm, aromatic pungency that infuses into the hot vinegar.
Whole white pepper
Contributes gentle heat and aroma to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling time for the mushrooms. Boiling for 6 to 9 minutes softens the mushrooms enough to become tender while still holding their shape. Over-boiling makes them soft and mushy, while uneven sizes cook at different rates, so larger pieces need a head start.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, white wine, vinegar, ginger, pepper, mace, nutmeg. 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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