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To Pickle Walnuts

A method for pickling walnuts in a brine and vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

To Pickle Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather walnuts while they can be easily pierced with a pin.

  2. Make brine by dissolving 6 ounces of salt in 1 quart of water; remove scum as it dissolves.

  3. Add walnuts to the brine and stir them twice daily.

  4. Change the brine every three days.

  5. Soak the walnuts for 12 days if eating immediately, or 9 days if drying.

  6. Spread the drained walnuts on dishes to expose them to air until they turn black, about 12 hours.

Make and store the pickle

  1. Boil vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, black pepper, ginger, mace, cloves, and mustard‑seed for 5 minutes.

  2. Place the walnuts in a stone jar and pour the hot pickle over them.

  3. Once the pickle cools, cover the jar and store it in a dry place.

  4. Ensure the walnuts are always covered with vinegar and boil any added vinegar.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Main ingredient that darkens in air and absorbs the brine and pickling flavours.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the walnuts during brining and firms their texture.
Vinegar
Acidic base that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard-seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that mellows into the pickle.

The step that matters

Keeping the walnuts covered with vinegar. Walnuts exposed above the liquid can spoil and mould, because the vinegar acidity is what preserves them. Keeping every piece submerged, and boiling any vinegar added later, keeps the pickle safe in storage.

Swap the mace

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

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

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