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Walnut Pickle

A preserved walnut dish pickled in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 green walnuts in fresh water, then rub off with a coarse towel.

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

Blacken and soften the walnuts

  1. Soak walnuts in clear water for several hours.

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

  3. Rub walnuts with a coarse towel and air until they turn black.

  4. Soak walnuts in weak vinegar for one to two days.

Pickle

  1. Prepare pickling vinegar by boiling 1 gallon of strong vinegar with ginger, garlic, horseradish, red pepper, orange peel, mace, cloves, and black pepper.

  2. Pour the hot pickling vinegar over the walnuts and let them sit for two to three weeks 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. 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 walnuts
Provide the main texture, softening during boiling and absorbing the pickling vinegar.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the walnuts and helps preserve them while they sit.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Ginger
Adds aromatic heat that flavours the pickling vinegar.

The step that matters

Rubbing and airing until the walnuts turn black. The walnut skins darken through exposure to air as their natural phenolic compounds oxidise. The black colour is the sign this stage is done, so stopping early leaves the pickle pale and underdeveloped.

Swap the mace

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

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

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