Why it works: Walnut and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,769 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Pickled Butternuts Ob, Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Gather the walnuts when they are green enough for a pin to pierce them.
Use a large needle to pierce each walnut.
Make a brine with 1½ pints of coarse sea salt and 1 gallon of water.
Add the walnuts to the brine and let them soak for a week.
Freshen the walnuts in tepid water for a few hours, longer if needed.
Pickle
Place the walnuts in a crock and cover them with boiling vinegar, adding spices to your taste.
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.
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Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,769 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Walnuts
- Young green walnuts are the base of the pickle, softening and darkening as they soak and take on the vinegar.
- Boiling vinegar
- Acidity preserves the walnuts and gives the sharp, tangy flavour of the finished pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Salt in the brine draws out bitterness and moisture from the walnuts before pickling.
The step that matters
Freshening the walnuts after brining. Soaking in tepid water for a few hours, longer if needed, removes excess salt and bitterness. Stopping too early leaves the walnuts too salty or bitter, so judge by taste rather than by the clock.
“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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