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Walnut Pickle

A pickled walnut preserve made with vinegar, garlic or onions, cloves, allspice, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather walnuts while the rinds are tender.

  2. Soak the walnuts in strong salt water for 2 weeks.

  3. Remove the walnuts, rub them with a dry cloth, and soak in fresh water overnight.

Make the pickle

  1. Combine garlic or onions, cloves, allspice, and pepper in vinegar.

  2. Boil the spices and vinegar together.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the walnuts.

  4. On the first day, boil the walnuts in the vinegar briefly.

  5. Scald the vinegar and pour over the walnuts for the next 2 days.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Walnut + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

White walnuts
Form the main body of the pickle, taking on flavour as they soak in the spiced vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidifies and preserves the walnuts while carrying the spice flavours into them.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Garlic or onions
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking the walnuts in salt water. Salt draws out bitterness and tannins from the walnut hulls and rinds; a weak or short soak can leave the pickle harsh, so the full two weeks in strong brine matters.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, garlic, clove, allspice, pepper, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, garlic, clove, allspice, pepper, 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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