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Walnuts.— Black

Pickled black walnuts with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard 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 ↓

Walnuts.— Black

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Soak walnuts in salt and water for 24 hours.

  2. Drain and soak in fresh water for another 24 hours.

  3. Wipe the walnuts and half-fill a jar with them.

Pickle

  1. Stick cloves into the onion and add it to the jar with the spices.

  2. Boil vinegar to cover the walnuts, then pour it hot over them.

  3. Once cooled, cover the jar with a cloth.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Black walnuts
Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing the vinegar flavour as they sit.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy character.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking the walnuts in salt and water. The two long soaks draw out bitterness and tannins from the walnut hulls and meats. Skipping or shortening them can leave the finished pickle harsh and bitter.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, horseradish, pepper, mustard, vinegar, 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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