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To Pickle Walnuts

A method for pickling walnuts in a brine and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine and walnuts

  1. Gather walnuts while they are still soft enough to pierce easily.

  2. Make brine with 6 ounces of salt dissolved in 2 quarts of water.

  3. Remove any scum from the surface of the brine.

  4. Add walnuts to the brine and stir them twice daily.

  5. Change the brine every three days.

Cure and blacken

  1. For immediate eating, leave walnuts in brine for 12 days; otherwise, drain after 9 days.

  2. Spread drained walnuts on dishes and expose to air until they turn black, about 12 hours.

Pickle and store

  1. Boil together ½ gallon vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 ounces black pepper, 3 ounces ginger, 1 drachm mace, ¼ to ½ ounce cloves, and 4 ounces mustard‑seed for 5 minutes.

  2. Pour the hot pickle over the walnuts in a stone jar.

  3. Once the pickle is cold, cover the jar securely and store in a dry place.

  4. Ensure walnuts are always covered with vinegar and boil any added vinegar.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 darkens to black when exposed to air.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the walnuts during brining, firming them and seasoning the nuts.
Mustard-seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the vinegar.
Whole black pepper
Adds warm, pungent aroma to the spiced pickle.

The step that matters

Keep the walnuts covered with vinegar. Walnuts exposed above the liquid can spoil or grow mould, so they must stay fully submerged. Vinegar's acidity inhibits microbial growth, and any added vinegar should be boiled first so it does not introduce contamination.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, pepper, ginger, clove, onion, mustard. 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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