Why it works: Vinegar and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Pickle Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Pare the walnuts until the white appears, avoiding deep cuts.
Place the walnuts in saltwater to prevent browning.
Boil the walnuts in salted water for 5 minutes.
Remove the walnuts and spread them between two clean cloths to cool.
Pickle in vinegar
Place the cooled walnuts in wide-mouthed bottles.
Fill each bottle with distilled vinegar, adding a blade or two of mace and 2 teaspoons of eating oil.
Cork the bottles well and store them in a dry place.
Second method with vine leaves
For a second method, wrap the walnuts in vine leaves and layer them in a jar with more leaves at the bottom.
Fill the jar with alegar, seal tightly, and let stand for 3 weeks.
Pour off the alegar and repeat the wrapping process with fresh leaves.
Fill the jar with white wine vinegar and let stand for another 3 weeks before wrapping again with fresh leaves.
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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Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,776 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,329 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Walnut + macetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together765 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,769 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Walnut + white winetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together246 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large french walnuts
- Form the pickled body; paring exposes the white flesh that absorbs the pickling liquid.
- Distilled vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives them their sharp pickled flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Salt water that draws out bitterness and helps keep the cut walnuts from browning.
- Vine leaves
- Wrap the walnuts and add aroma and flavour during the second pickling method.
- Alegar
- Malt vinegar that acidifies and flavours the walnuts in the first leaf-wrapped stage.
- White wine vinegar
- Mild acidity that finishes the pickling in the final stage.
The step that matters
Paring the walnuts. Cutting too deeply exposes the inner nut and lets bitterness and tannins leach out unevenly, so pare only until the white shows and avoid deep cuts.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mace, white wine):
- Peasfits better
- Walnutthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mace, white wine. 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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