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Dessert

Pickled Walnuts

Pickled walnuts are preserved in a spiced vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish 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 ↓

Pickled Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Combine mustard seed, allspice, cloves, mace, black pepper, and horseradish in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture in 1 gallon of vinegar.

Pickle and age

  1. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the walnuts, ensuring they are completely covered.

  2. Allow the pickled walnuts to age for improved flavor.

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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Are the main food being preserved and flavoured by the hot spiced vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid that soaks into the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp acidity.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, slightly bitter heat that develops as the pickle matures.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, warm spice that carries through the pickling liquid.
Horseradish
Provides a pungent, sharp heat that mellows during ageing.

The step that matters

Covering the walnuts completely with hot vinegar. Walnuts exposed above the liquid can spoil or darken, and full submersion keeps them preserved and evenly flavoured as the pickle ages.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, allspice, clove, pepper, horseradish, vinegar, walnut. 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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