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Walnuts, Pickled
Scald the walnuts, which for pickling must be used before they have a hard shell. This scalding will enable you easily to rub off the skin. Put them into a brine of salt and water strong enough to float an egg. Let them remain three days, then shift them into fresh brine, and let them soak for three days longer. Now shift them once more into fresh brine, and let them soak for four days. They are then fit for the jar. Have ready prepared equal parts of black pepper, Jamaica pepper, allspice, and ginger; a quarter of a pint of cloves, the same quantity of mace, and a pint and a half of white mustard-seed. Beat these ingredients together in a mortar, but do not pound them fine. Put the walnuts into the jar by layers, and over each layer strew some of the mixed seasoning. Then have ready some vinegar boiled with sliced horse-radish and ginger, and cover the walnuts with it. When quite cold, cork and cover it with the jar bladder. This pickle is much improved by the addition of a little garlic and tarragon boiled with the vinegar.
WALNUTS, PICKLED (to be made from the beginning to the middle of July). Be very particular to gather the green walnuts when they are in a proper state for pickling-neither too soon nor too late. If they are too young, they will dissolve in the pickle; if too old, they will resist the action of the vinegar. They ought to be taken before the shells have begun to form; and the test of their fitness is that a large pin can, without difficulty, be pushed through them in every direction. If once the shell can be felt they are no longer fit for pickling. Wipe the walnuts separately with a coarse cloth, put them into an earthen pan, and pour upon them a brine strong enough to float a fresh egg. This brine may be made by boiling six ounces of salt with each quart of water. It should be skimmed carefully, and allowed to get cold before being put to the walnuts. Lay a thin board upon the walnuts to keep them under the brine. Turn them about with a wooden spoon every day, and let them remain for six days; then drain them, and pour fresh brine upon them. Leave them from three to six days longer, drain in a colander, and put them in the sun in a single layer, on a large dish covered with coarse sackcloth. They will turn black in a few hours. Turn them over once or twice, handling them gently. Boil as much vinegar as will entirely cover the walnuts, with spices, in the proportion of two ounces of whole ginger bruised, two ounces of black pepper, four blades of mace, two ounces of mustard-seed, eight cloves stuck into four shallots or small onions, and a tea-spoonful of salt, to half a gallon of vinegar. A dessert-spoonful of scraped horse-radish and one or two capsicums are sometimes added, but they destroy the flavour of the pickle. Boil the vinegar for ten minutes, put the walnuts into unglazed jars or wide-mouthed bottles, and when the vinegar is cool pour it upon them, and divide the spices equally amongst the bottles. When cold, tie them over with moistened bladder or with strong brown paper. As the walnuts soak up the vinegar, boil a little additional vinegar without spices, and when cold pour it upon them. They must be kept entirely covered with the vinegar. They will be ready for use in three months, but will improve with keeping. If wanted for speedy use, pierce each one throughout both ways with a needle, leave them in the brine fully twelve days, and pour the vinegar upon them boiling hot. Time, about a fortnight to make the pickle. Probable cost, walnuts, 1s. 6d. to 2s. per 100.
Two versions of the same pickle, printed one after the other: a brief older method and a fuller one with quantities. The second is the one to follow, but both hinge on the same thing — catching the walnuts before the shell forms.
- The pin test is the whole recipeGreen walnuts must be pickled while a stout pin or skewer passes cleanly through the fruit in every direction. Once you feel any resistance at the centre, the shell has begun to lignify and no amount of vinegar will soften it. The book gives the window as the beginning to the middle of July; it will come earlier in warmer climates.
- Wear glovesGreen walnut husks contain juglone and related compounds that stain skin a deep brown-black for a week or more and irritate some people. The book assumes servants and does not mention it. Nitrile gloves and an apron you do not care about.
- "Jamaica pepper, allspice"These are the same spice — Jamaica pepper is an old English name for allspice. The first recipe lists both, which is either a copying error or a sign that the compiler treated one as pimento berries and the other as ground. Use allspice once.
- Spice quantities in the first versionA quarter of a pint of cloves and a pint and a half of mustard seed belong to a household pickling a bushel of walnuts at a time. The second recipe's proportions are the usable ones: to half a gallon (about 2.3 litres) of vinegar, 2 oz bruised whole ginger, 2 oz black peppercorns, 4 blades of mace, 2 oz mustard seed, 8 cloves stuck into 4 shallots, and a teaspoon of salt.
- Brine strengthSix ounces of salt to a quart of water is about 170 g in a little over a litre, so roughly 150 g per litre — around a 13 per cent brine, strong enough to float an egg. Make it, boil it, skim it and cool it completely before it goes near the walnuts.
- Sunning them blackSpreading the drained walnuts in a single layer until they blacken is enzymatic oxidation, not spoilage, and it is what gives the finished pickle its colour. A few hours of direct sun does it; a low oven or dehydrator is a poor substitute because you want air, not heat.
- Vinegar and vesselsUse vinegar of at least 5 per cent acetic acid; the strength of Victorian malt vinegar is not something you can assume from the recipe. Glass or unglazed stoneware only, as the book says; avoid old glazed earthenware, where the glaze may be lead-based, and avoid bare metal, which the acid will attack.
- SealingA moistened bladder tied over the mouth was one of the usual covers before screw tops; the book allows strong brown paper instead. Use glass jars with vinegar-proof plastic-lined lids; bare metal lids corrode through in a season.
- Topping up and keepingThe walnuts absorb vinegar as they mature and must stay fully submerged — top up with plain boiled and cooled vinegar as needed. Three months minimum, better at a year.
Pickled walnuts are one of the oldest surviving English store-cupboard preserves, made since at least the seventeenth century and still eaten with cold beef, game pie and hard cheese; walnut ketchup, a relative of the bottled brown sauces of the Victorian table, was made from green walnuts in the same short season. The July timing is the point of the thing — pickling turned a brief glut into something that kept for years. Cassell's was compiled in the 1870s for middle-class households running their own preserving year, which is why the entry ends with a price per hundred walnuts. The instruction to reject capsicums and horseradish because "they destroy the flavour of the pickle" sits oddly beside the first recipe, which boils horse-radish in the vinegar — the two entries appear to come from different sources set down side by side.