Why it works: Ginger and clove 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 ↓
Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather walnuts before the shells begin to form and remove the stalks.
Place walnuts in a jar.
Pickle
Boil vinegar with salt, horseradish, pepper, ginger, and cloves.
Pour the hot mixture over the walnuts.
When cold, cover the jar with a bladder and let it stand for a year.
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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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Horseradish + clovetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,245 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Walnut + horseradishtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together259 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh walnuts
- Provide the main body of the pickle, softening and absorbing the spiced vinegar over time.
- Vinegar
- Acts as the pickling liquid, giving sharpness and preserving the walnuts.
- Horseradish
- Adds a sharp, pungent heat that infuses into the pickling liquid.
- Cloves
- Contribute a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Pour the hot mixture over the walnuts. The vinegar mixture must be boiled and poured hot so the spices release their flavour and the liquid can penetrate the walnuts evenly before it cools.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, horseradish, pepper, ginger, clove):
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits about as well
- Cashew nutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, horseradish, pepper, ginger, clove. 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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