Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
To Pickle Walnuts White
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Pare the walnuts very thin until the white appears.
Place the pared walnuts in spring water with a handful of coarse sea salt.
Let the walnuts soak for six hours, weighing them down with a thin board.
Bring clean water to a simmer in a saucepan.
Add the walnuts to the simmering water and cook for four to five minutes.
Prepare a bowl of spring water with a handful of coarse sea salt. Stir the mixture until the salt is dissolved.
Transfer the walnuts to the cold salted water.
Let the walnuts sit for 15 minutes, keeping them submerged.
Lay the walnuts on a cloth to dry. Gently wipe the walnuts with a soft cloth.
Pickle and seal
Place the walnuts in a jar with blades of mace and thinly sliced nutmeg. Mix the spices between the nuts.
Pour distilled vinegar over the walnuts until the jar is full.
Add mutton fat on top of the vinegar.
Seal the jar tightly with leather to keep out air.
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.
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Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,230 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Walnut + macetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together765 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,769 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Walnut + muttontop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together163 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large walnuts
- Provide the main body of the pickle, softening and taking on the spiced vinegar flavour.
- Distilled vinegar
- Acts as the pickling liquid, adding sharp acidity that preserves and flavours the walnuts.
- Mace blades
- Add warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the walnuts during pickling.
- Thinly sliced nutmeg
- Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that infuse into the walnuts.
- Mutton fat
- Forms a layer on top of the vinegar that helps seal the jar against air.
The step that matters
Soaking and salting the walnuts. Salt draws out bitterness and firms the nut flesh, while the brief simmer and cold-water rinse set the texture before pickling. Skipping or shortening these steps can leave the walnuts bitter or soft.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, nutmeg, mutton):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Clovefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, nutmeg, mutton. 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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