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 ↓
Green Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Gather 100 large green walnuts while the shells are still tender.
Wrap each walnut in vine leaves and place them in jars, ensuring they do not touch each other.
Cover the walnuts with light-colored vinegar and seal the jars to keep out air.
Let the walnuts sit for three weeks.
Steep and refresh
After three weeks, pour off the vinegar and wrap the walnuts in fresh vine leaves.
Refill the jars with vinegar and let them sit for an additional two weeks.
After two weeks, remove the leaves and place the walnuts in jars.
Make the spiced brine and store
In a pot, combine pale vinegar with enough coarse sea salt to float an egg, garlic, cloves, mace, allspice, and nutmeg.
Simmer the mixture for fifteen minutes.
Pour the hot mixture over the walnuts, seal the jars with bladder or leather, and store for four months before using.
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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,331 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,230 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green walnuts
- Form the preserved body; their tender shells and flesh soften and take on the vinegar and spice flavors.
- Vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the walnuts and sharpens their flavor over the long steeping.
- Garlic
- Adds pungent aroma that mellows and infuses the walnuts during storage.
- Cloves
- Provide warm, aromatic spice flavor to the preserved walnuts.
- Mace
- Adds warm, delicate aroma that complements the other spices.
- Nutmeg
- Adds warm, sweet aroma to the spiced brine.
The step that matters
Keeping the walnuts apart and sealed while steeping. Walnuts that touch can spoil at contact points, and air exposure lets spoilage microbes grow, so each walnut is wrapped separately and jars are sealed to limit air.
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, egg, clove, mace, allspice, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, egg, clove, mace, allspice, 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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