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Pickled Walnuts

Pickled walnuts soaked in brine, sun-dried, then preserved in vinegar and pickling spice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,769 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Pickled Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Wipe the walnuts and place them in an earthen pan.

  2. Cover the walnuts with brine and let them soak for 5 to 6 days.

  3. Remove the walnuts and place them in the sun for 1 to 2 days until they turn black.

Pickle and bottle

  1. Boil the pickling spice with vinegar and let it cool.

  2. Pour the cooled vinegar over the walnuts in bottles, filling them completely.

  3. Cover the bottles with parchment and tie securely with string.

  4. Let the pickled walnuts sit for 3 to 4 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. Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Walnut + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 during brining and turns dark and flavourful in the sun.
Brine
Salt solution that draws out moisture and begins to firm and season the walnuts.
Vinegar
Acid that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Pickling spice
Aromatic spices that infuse the vinegar and add warm, complex flavour.

The step that matters

Filling the bottles completely. Leaving air space above the walnuts lets them oxidise and spoil, so the vinegar should cover them fully before sealing.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Soybeanfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar. 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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