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To Pickle Walnuts

A method for preserving walnuts in a seasoned brine and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

To Pickle Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather walnuts in mid-July before the shell forms; prick each walnut several times with a needle.

  2. Soak walnuts in salt and water for 2-3 days, changing the water daily.

  3. Make a brine strong enough to float an egg; boil and skim it, then let it cool.

  4. Soak walnuts in the brine for 6 days, then change the brine and soak for another 6 days.

Blacken and pickle

  1. Drain walnuts and expose them to the sun until they turn black.

  2. In a jar, combine white-wine vinegar with pepper, pimento, ginger, mace, cloves, mustard seed, and horseradish; boil and let cool.

  3. Pour the vinegar mixture over the walnuts, ensuring they are fully covered.

  4. Seal the jar tightly; they will be good for several years but not ready to eat for at least 6 months.

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. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Main ingredient that is pickled; pricking and brining let the brine and vinegar penetrate the nut.
Salt
Draws water out of the walnuts and seasons them during the long brine soaks.
White-wine vinegar
Acidic liquid that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that infuses into the pickling vinegar.
Horseradish
Contributes pungent heat that mellows as the pickle matures.

The step that matters

Soaking the walnuts in brine. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg and the walnuts must stay fully submerged. Salt draws out moisture and keeps the nuts from spoiling during the long soaks.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, mustard, pepper, garlic, wine, vinegar, ginger. 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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