Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Pickled Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Brine the walnuts
Gather walnuts that can be pierced with a needle.
Cover them with brine made from 1½ pounds of salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water.
Let them stand in a cool place for three weeks.
Pickle in vinegar
Drain the walnuts in a colander and wash the jars.
Return the walnuts to the jars and cover with best cider vinegar for one month.
After a month, rinse and wipe the jars again.
Add the walnuts back to the jars and sprinkle with 1 ounce of mustard seed.
In a pot, combine enough best vinegar to cover the walnuts with 1 ounce of cloves, 1 ounce of black pepper, 1 ounce of stick cinnamon, ½ ounce of mace, and ½ ounce of ground ginger.
Boil the mixture for ten minutes, then let it cool.
Pour the cooled mixture over the walnuts and seal the jars tightly.
Mature
They are ready to eat when soft but improve if kept for one to two years.
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.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Walnuts (in the method)
- Being the main food, they absorb the brine and vinegar and soften into the pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the walnuts through osmosis, firming them and helping preserve them in the brine.
- Best cider vinegar
- Acidity preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
- Cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp, pungent heat and aroma to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Brining the walnuts. Salt must fully dissolve in the water and the walnuts must stay submerged for the full three weeks. Too weak a brine or exposure to air can let the walnuts spoil before the vinegar stage.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, mustard, clove, pepper, cinnamon, ginger):
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, mustard, clove, pepper, cinnamon, ginger. 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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