Name: Pickled Walnuts and Butternuts
Ingredients: 100 walnuts or butternuts; 4 quarts vinegar; 1 ounce whole black pepper; 1 ounce ginger; ½ ounce bruised nutmeg; ½ ounce whole allspice; 1 tablespoon scraped horseradish; 1 head garlic

Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Walnuts and Butternuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the nuts

Gather the nuts when they can be easily pierced with a pin.
Soak the nuts in brine for 12 days, changing the brine twice.

Pickle the nuts

In a pot, combine 4 quarts of vinegar with whole black pepper, ginger, bruised nutmeg, whole allspice, scraped horseradish, and garlic.
Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it hot over the nuts.
After 24 hours, drain the vinegar and pour it over the nuts again while hot.
After using the nuts, boil, strain, and bottle the leftover liquid to use as a pickle.

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.

Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together654 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,230 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,324 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts or butternuts: Provide the main body of the pickle, absorbing the spiced vinegar as they steep.
Vinegar: Acts as the pickling liquid, preserving the nuts and giving them their sharp flavour.
Whole black pepper: Adds warm, sharp spice that infuses into the vinegar and nuts.
Ginger: Contributes aromatic heat that flavours the pickling liquid.
Whole allspice: Adds aromatic, clove-like spice that deepens the pickle's flavour.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot vinegar over the nuts. The vinegar must be boiling hot when poured so the spices and acid penetrate the nuts evenly. Repeating the hot pour after 24 hours helps the flavour infuse fully and keeps the pickle well preserved.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, horseradish, garlic):

Cashew nutfits better
Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits about as well
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, horseradish, 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.

Horseradish Sauce17 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Pickled Walnuts and Butternuts