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Pickled Walnuts

Pickled walnuts preserved in vinegar with spices and garlic or shallots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Scald the walnuts slightly to remove the skin.

  2. Soak the walnuts in a strong cold brine.

  3. Change the brine on the third and sixth days.

  4. Dry the walnuts on the ninth or tenth day.

Spice and pickle

  1. Bruise the long pepper, black pepper, ginger, allspice, cloves, mace, and mustard seed together.

  2. Layer the walnuts in a jar.

  3. Sprinkle the spice mixture between layers.

  4. Boil the white wine vinegar with sliced horseradish and ginger.

  5. Pour the hot vinegar over the walnuts.

  6. Repeat boiling and pouring the vinegar over the walnuts for three to four days.

  7. Keep the walnuts covered.

  8. Add garlic or shallots during the last boiling.

Mature

  1. Let the walnuts stand for four to five 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing brine, spice and vinegar flavour as they stand.
White wine vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the walnuts and carries the spice flavours into them.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that mellows over the long standing time.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that infuses the vinegar and walnuts.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent bite to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the walnuts before spicing. Walnuts must be fully dry before they go into the jar. Surface moisture dilutes the vinegar and can encourage spoilage during the long standing period.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, pepper, ginger, allspice, clove, mace):

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, pepper, ginger, allspice, clove, mace. 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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