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Pickled Walnuts

Pickled walnuts are green walnuts preserved in a vinegar and spice brine.

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 ↓

Pickled Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather green and tender walnuts, identified by running a pin through them.

  2. Soak the walnuts in strong saltwater for nine days, stirring twice daily and changing the water every three days.

  3. Place the walnuts on a hair sieve and let them air dry until they turn black.

Pickle

  1. In a pot, scald the vinegar with mace, cloves, peppercorns, mustard seed, allspice, and salt.

  2. Pour the boiling hot vinegar mixture over the walnuts in stone or glass jars.

  3. Repeat the scalding and pouring process two or three times.

Rest

  1. Allow the pickled walnuts to sit for one month 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green walnuts
The main ingredient; their soak and air drying turn them dark and mellow their bitterness.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Cloves
Adds warm, pungent aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, delicate aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent note that carries into the vinegar.
Allspice
Adds a warm, blended aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking in strong saltwater for the full nine days. Salt draws moisture and bitter compounds out of the green walnut and begins darkening it. Cutting the soak short or skipping the water changes leaves more bitterness in the finished pickle.

Swap the mace

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

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

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

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