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Walnut Pickle

Pickled walnuts soaked, boiled, and preserved in a vinegar, sugar, and spice solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Walnut Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Soak the green walnuts in fresh water, then rub them with a coarse towel.

  2. Keep the walnuts in brine for a week, changing the brine every third day.

  3. Soak the walnuts in clear water for several hours.

  4. Boil the walnuts in a mixture of vinegar and water until soft.

  5. Rub the walnuts with a coarse towel and soak them in weak vinegar for 1-2 days.

Pickle

  1. Prepare a pickling solution with 1 gallon of strong vinegar, 2 pounds of sugar, and spices (cinnamon, mace, cloves).

  2. Pour the hot pickling solution over the walnuts and let them sit for 4 mornings.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green and tender walnuts
Form the main body of the pickle and absorb the brine and vinegar flavours.
Strong vinegar
Acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Sugar
Sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Coarse salt
Draws water out of the walnuts and helps keep the brine preserving.

The step that matters

Soaking and brining the green walnuts. Green walnuts release bitter compounds and dark stains when cut or handled. Soaking in fresh water and repeated brine changes draws out bitterness and tannins, so skipping or shortening these soaks leaves the pickle harsh and bitter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, garlic):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, garlic. 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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