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Green Walnuts

A pickled preservation of green walnuts in vinegar with spices, stored in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

  1. Gather 100 large green walnuts while the shells are still tender.

  2. Wrap each walnut in vine leaves and place them in jars with more vine leaves to prevent contact.

  3. Cover the walnuts with light-colored vinegar and seal the jars to keep out air.

  4. Let the walnuts sit for three weeks.

  5. After three weeks, pour off the vinegar and wrap the walnuts in fresh vine leaves.

  6. Refill the jars with vinegar and let them sit for an additional two weeks.

  7. After two weeks, remove the leaves and place the walnuts in jars.

Make the pickling liquor

  1. In a pot, combine 3 quarts of pale vinegar, enough coarse sea salt to float an egg, minced garlic, bruised cloves, bruised mace, bruised allspice, and bruised nutmeg.

  2. Simmer the mixture for fifteen minutes.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the walnuts, seal the jars with bladder, and store for four months 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.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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
Provide the main body of the preserve, softening and taking on flavor during the long soak.
Light-colored vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, adding sharp acidity that keeps the walnuts stable.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out and seasons the brine, helping to preserve the walnuts.
Cloves
Add warm aromatic spice that flavors the brine.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the brine.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the brine.

The step that matters

Keeping the walnuts submerged and sealed during the weeks of soaking. Walnuts exposed to air can discolor and spoil, and vinegar only preserves what it fully covers. Keeping them wrapped and covered in liquid protects them throughout the long steeping.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, egg, clove, mace, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. 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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