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Pickled Walnuts

Pickled walnuts preserved in brine and vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Pickled Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Prick the walnuts with a fork.

  2. Prepare a strong brine by dissolving 4 lbs of salt in 1 gallon of water.

  3. Submerge the walnuts in the brine.

  4. Keep them for 9 days, changing the brine every 3 days.

  5. Drain the walnuts.

  6. Place them in the sun until they turn completely black, about 2 to 3 days.

Pickle and store

  1. Prepare dried jars.

  2. Fill the jars with the walnuts, leaving some space at the top.

  3. Boil enough vinegar to cover the walnuts for 10 minutes, adding the spices.

  4. Pour the hot vinegar over the walnuts, ensuring they are fully submerged.

  5. Seal the jars with bladder and store them in a dry place.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Walnut + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Their tannins and oils darken and flavour the pickle as they cure and sit in the vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the walnuts and preserves them during the long brine soak.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the walnuts and gives the finished pickle its sharp, tangy character.
Whole black pepper
Adds pungent, warm aroma to the pickling liquor.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the pickling vinegar.

The step that matters

Turning the walnuts black in the brine and sun. The walnuts must be fully submerged and kept in fresh brine as directed, because salt draws out moisture and slows spoilage. Incomplete soaking or changing the brine too late can let the walnuts spoil before they darken.

Swap the walnut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, allspice, ginger. 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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