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To Pickle Wainbts

A method for pickling young walnuts in a brine and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,171 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Wainbts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Gather walnuts while they are still soft enough to pierce with a pin.

  2. Make brine with 6 ounces of salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water.

  3. Remove any scum from the surface of the brine.

  4. Add walnuts to the brine and stir them twice daily.

  5. Change the brine every three days.

  6. For immediate eating, leave walnuts in brine for 12 days; otherwise, drain after 9 days.

Blacken the walnuts

  1. Spread drained walnuts on dishes and expose to air until they turn black, about 12 hours.

Pickle and store

  1. In a pot, combine ½ gallon vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 ounces black pepper, 3 ounces ginger, 1 teaspoon mace, ¼ to ½ ounce cloves, and 4 ounces mustard‑seed.

  2. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.

  3. Place walnuts in a stone jar and pour the hot pickle over them.

  4. Once the pickle is cold, cover the jar securely and store in a dry place.

  5. Ensure walnuts are always covered with vinegar and boil any additional vinegar added.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ginger + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Main ingredient that softens in brine and darkens to black on exposure to air.
Sea salt
Draws water out of the walnuts and preserves them during the brine stage.
Vinegar
Acid that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard-seed
Adds pungency and a sharp, spicy flavour to the pickle.

The step that matters

Keeping walnuts covered with vinegar. Walnuts exposed above the liquid can spoil and mould, because the acid and salt that preserve them only work where they are submerged.

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

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

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Sesameabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Chickpeaabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, ginger, mace, clove, onion, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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