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Preserve

Walnuts, to Preserve

A method for preserving walnuts by storing them in earthen pots, buried, or covered with sawdust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Walnuts, to Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Pot and clay

  1. Fill an earthen pot with walnuts.

  2. Cover the walnuts with 1 inch of clay.

  3. Store the pot in a cool, dry place until Christmas.

Jar and bury

  1. Place walnuts in an earthenware jar with a lid.

  2. Bury the jar about 1 foot deep in the ground.

Flower pots and sawdust

  1. Gather walnuts on a dry day.

  2. Place the walnuts in large flower pots.

  3. Cover the walnuts with 2 inches of sawdust.

Cellar storage

  1. Store the pots on the floor of a wine cellar.

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
The food being preserved, kept whole and sealed away from air to slow spoiling.
Clay
Forms a sealed covering that limits air reaching the walnuts.
Sawdust
Dry packing that cushions the walnuts and limits contact with air and moisture.

The step that matters

Gather walnuts on a dry day. Moisture on the nuts encourages mould and rot during storage, so dry conditions at packing help them keep longer.

“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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