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Dessert

Sweet Pickles

Sweet pickles made from walnuts, preserved in a spiced vinegar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Soak walnuts in brine for 3 days, changing the brine daily.

  2. Prepare a new brine by dissolving salt in boiling water; let it cool before using.

  3. Let the walnuts stand in the new brine for 3 more days, then drain.

  4. Expose the walnuts to the sun for 2-3 days until they turn black, or soak in cold water for half a day.

Pickle and store

  1. Pack the walnuts in jars, leaving some space at the top.

  2. Boil the vinegar for 8 minutes with sugar, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, and mace.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar over the walnuts.

  4. After 3 days, draw off the vinegar, boil it again, and pour it over the walnuts while hot.

  5. Repeat this process after another 3 days.

  6. The pickles will be ready to eat in a month and can be stored for years.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Walnut + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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
Main ingredient that is softened in brine and takes on the pickling flavour.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Whole cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole peppercorns
Add sharp, aromatic pungency to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Repeated hot vinegar pouring. Pouring hot vinegar over the walnuts and reboiling it after each interval keeps the walnuts submerged and the liquid hot, helping the acidic brine penetrate and preserve them. Skipping or cooling the vinegar weakens this effect.

Swap the mace

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

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

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