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To Pickle English Walnuts

A method for pickling young walnuts in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Pickle English Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather young walnuts that can be easily pierced with a pin.

  2. Soak the walnuts in strong brine for six weeks, stirring occasionally.

  3. After six weeks, place the walnuts on dishes to air for a few moments.

  4. Pour boiling vinegar over the walnuts every third day for nine days.

Pickle and store

  1. In a pot, combine black pepper, cloves, allspice, mustard seed, and dried horseradish with fresh vinegar and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the walnuts and 1 pound of brown sugar to the boiling mixture.

  3. Let the walnuts sit until the following winter 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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Young walnuts
Provide the main substance; they must be young enough to pierce easily with a pin.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Fresh vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Strong brine
Draws out bitterness and firms the walnuts before pickling.

The step that matters

Pouring boiling vinegar every third day. Repeated hot vinegar treatments gradually soften the walnuts and draw out bitter compounds. Skipping or rushing the days can leave the pickle harsh and insufficiently preserved.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, mustard, horseradish, sugar):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, mustard, horseradish, sugar. 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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