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Walnuts to Pickle

A brine-soaked walnut pickle flavored with vinegar, peppercorns, allspice, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnuts to Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Prick the walnuts with a fork.

  2. Prepare a strong brine with 1 lb of salt and 3 pints of water.

  3. When the brine is cold, add the walnuts and soak for 4 days.

  4. Remove the walnuts from the first brine.

  5. Prepare a second brine and soak the walnuts for an additional 3 to 4 days.

  6. Take the walnuts out to dry in the air to achieve a black color.

Pickle and jar

  1. In a pot, boil the vinegar, peppercorns, allspice, and bruised ginger for a few minutes.

  2. Place the walnuts in jars.

  3. Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the walnuts.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts (in the method)
Are the main food being pickled, softening and darkening through the brining and drying.
Sea salt
Draws water out of the walnuts and seasons them through the brine.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickled walnuts.
Peppercorns
Add sharp, aromatic heat that flavors the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, clove-like aroma to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds a fresh, spicy aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Drying the walnuts to black. Exposing the brined walnuts to air lets their surface oxidize and darken. Drying them fully before jarring keeps excess moisture from diluting the vinegar and encouraging spoilage.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice. 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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