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Pickled Walnuts

Pickled walnuts preserved in a salted brine and vinegar with spices, then stored for months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the walnuts

  1. Make a strong brine by dissolving salt in boiling water until it can float an egg.

  2. Let the brine cool before adding the walnuts.

  3. Place a board on the walnuts to keep them submerged in the brine for nine days.

  4. Make fresh brine every third day.

Dry and pickle

  1. Drain the walnuts and sun-dry them until they turn black.

  2. Boil the spices in the vinegar before adding them to the jar.

  3. Put the walnuts in a jar and cover them with hot vinegar.

  4. Seal the jars securely and store in a dry place.

  5. Store the jars for at least one month, preferably six months, before using.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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 the brine and darkens during drying, becoming the pickle itself.
Vinegar
Acidic liquid that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Whole pepper
Adds warm, pungent spice that flavours the vinegar and penetrates the walnuts over time.
Whole ginger
Contributes warm, aromatic heat that infuses into the vinegar and the walnuts.

The step that matters

Brining the walnuts for the full nine days. The salt brine draws out moisture and bitterness from the walnut husks while the board keeps them fully submerged; if they float or the brine weakens, they can spoil or stay bitter.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, pepper, ginger, clove. 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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