Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Walnut Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Gather walnuts before the shell hardens.
Test the walnuts with a pin.
Soak walnuts in strong saltwater for nine days, stirring twice daily and changing the saltwater every three days.
Place walnuts in a sieve to air until they turn black.
Pickle the walnuts
Put walnuts in stone jars and pour boiling vinegar over them. Cover and let cool.
Boil the vinegar and pour it over the walnuts. Let the mixture cool.
Seal jars with paper and a bladder. Let stand for two months.
Spice and finish
Combine 2 quarts of vinegar with ½ ounce of mace, ½ ounce of cloves, 1 ounce of ginger, long pepper, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, and 2 ounces of common salt.
Boil the pickle mixture for 10 minutes.
Pour the hot pickle over the walnuts. Seal again. Cover.
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 + 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).
-
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,592 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
- Walnuts
- The main ingredient, which absorbs the salt, vinegar and spices and darkens while airing.
- Boiling vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickled walnuts.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the walnuts and mellows their bitterness during the soak.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickle.
- Cloves
- Adds a strong, aromatic spice note to the pickle.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickle.
The step that matters
Soaking in strong saltwater for nine days. Walnuts must soak in strong saltwater for nine days, with the brine changed every three days and the nuts stirred twice daily. Fresh brine keeps the salt strong enough to draw out moisture and bitterness, and stirring keeps every nut evenly exposed.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, clove, ginger, pepper):
- Allspicefits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, clove, ginger, pepper. 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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