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To Pickle Walnuts

A method for preserving walnuts in a vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

To Pickle Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Prepare a brine with salt and water, strong enough to float an egg.

  2. Boil the brine and cool it, skimming while boiling.

  3. Soak the walnuts in the brine for six days.

  4. Change the brine and soak the walnuts for another six days.

Pickle and seal

  1. Drain the walnuts and place them in a jar.

  2. Pour cold white wine vinegar mixed with pepper, pimento, ginger, mace, cloves, mustard seed, and horseradish, all boiled together and cooled, over the walnuts.

  3. Seal the jar tightly.

  4. Alternatively, cover the walnuts with cold vinegar and let them stand for four months.

  5. Boil fresh vinegar with mustard, horseradish, black pepper, cloves, ginger, allspice, and salt.

  6. Pour the hot 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Provide the main body of the pickle, softening and absorbing the spiced vinegar as they cure.
White wine vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the walnuts and carries the sharp, pungent flavour of the spices.
Salt
Draws out moisture and bitterness from the walnuts during the brine soak.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the walnuts pickle.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice that infuses into the vinegar and walnuts.

The step that matters

Soaking the walnuts in the brine. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg and the walnuts must be fully submerged. Salt draws moisture and bitterness out of the walnuts, and a weak brine can leave them bitter or spoil during the long soak.

Swap the walnut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, mustard, clove, pepper, ginger, 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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