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 ↓
Pickled Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Gather walnuts when soft enough to be pierced by a needle.
Prick each walnut with a large needle while holding it in a cloth to avoid staining your hands.
Cover the walnuts with a brine made of 1½ cups salt to 1 gallon water and let stand for 2-3 days, changing the brine daily.
Pour over the walnuts a new brine made by dissolving salt in boiling water; let it cool before using.
Let the walnuts stand in the new brine for 3 days, then renew the brine and let it stand for another 3 days.
Drain the walnuts and expose them to the sun for 2-3 days until they turn black, or soak them in cold water for half a day.
Pickle and store
Pack the walnuts in jars, not quite full.
Boil 1 gallon of vinegar for 8 minutes with 1 cup sugar, 3 dozen whole cloves, 3 dozen allspice, 1½ dozen peppercorns, and 12 blades of mace.
Pour the hot vinegar over the walnuts.
After 3 days, draw off the vinegar, boil it, and pour it over the walnuts again while hot.
Repeat this process after another 3 days.
The pickled walnuts will be ready to eat in a month and can be stored for years.
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.
-
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Walnut + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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 turns dark when pickled.
- Sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the walnuts and preserves them during the brining stage.
- Vinegar
- Acidic liquid that preserves the walnuts and gives them their sharp, tangy flavour.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
- Cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Prick each walnut before brining. Pricking breaks the hard outer skin so the salt brine and later the vinegar can penetrate the nut. Without it, the walnuts stay firm inside and the pickle flavour does not reach the centre.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, sugar, clove, allspice):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, sugar, clove, allspice. 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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe 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.