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To Pickle Walnuts

A preserved walnut pickle made by soaking in brine and then marinating in a vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

To Pickle Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather the walnuts in mid-July and soak them in saltwater for 2–3 days, changing the water daily.

  2. Make a cold brine strong enough to float an egg, skimming it while boiling.

  3. Soak the walnuts in the brine for 6 days, then change the brine and soak for another 6 days.

  4. Drain the walnuts and expose them to sunlight until they turn black.

Pickle and store

  1. In a jar, combine white wine vinegar with pepper, pimento, ginger, mace, cloves, mustard seed, and horseradish, boiled and cooled.

  2. Pour the mixture over the walnuts, ensuring they are fully covered with vinegar.

  3. Seal the jar tightly; they will be good for several years but not ready to eat for at least 6 months.

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. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 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
Are the main ingredient, softened by brining and darkened by sunlight into the pickle.
White wine vinegar
Acidity that preserves the walnuts and gives the pickling liquid its sharp flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour to the pickling liquid.
Horseradish
Adds sharp, pungent heat to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking in the brine. Salt draws water out of the walnuts and softens the husks, and the brine must be strong enough to float an egg. Changing the brine keeps the salt concentration high enough to keep the walnuts from spoiling during the long soak.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, white wine, vinegar, mustard, pepper, garlic, 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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