Name: Walnut Pickle
Ingredients: green walnuts; cider vinegar; coarse sea salt; spiced vinegar

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Walnut Pickle

Ingredients

green walnuts
cider vinegar
coarse sea salt
spiced vinegar

Directions

Select green walnuts that can be pierced by a needle.
Pierce each walnut with a needle.
Cover the walnuts with a strong brine made of cider vinegar and salt.
Leave the walnuts in the brine for 3 weeks.
After 3 weeks, remove the walnuts and wipe them well.
Pack the walnuts in a jar and cover with boiling hot spiced 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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,769 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Walnut + cidertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together211 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).