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Walnut Salad
Break the shells of some walnuts, remove the kernels carefully, blanch them to remove the skins, place them on a dish, squeeze over them the juice of one or two lemons, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and let them macerate for three hours, turning them about occasionally. At the end of that time they will be ready for serving and will make a very nice dish. If the juice of some unripe grapes can be obtained, it will be preferable to the lemon-juice.
A salad with no leaves in it: dressed walnut kernels, and little else. Everything depends on the nuts being fresh and the skins coming off.
- The hinge: use fresh nutsOld walnuts turn bitter and rancid, and no amount of lemon juice hides it. Buy shelled halves from a shop with turnover, or crack your own, and taste one before committing the batch.
- Blanching for the skinsCover the kernels with boiling water for a minute, drain, and rub them in a towel while hot. Walnut skins are more stubborn than almond skins; expect to pick at some pieces with your fingers, and accept that a few will not come clean.
- Wet walnuts are the easy caseFreshly harvested "wet" walnuts have soft, pale kernels and skins that slip off with little coaxing, so the dish is easiest in autumn. Made with older dried nuts, it is a more tedious job for a poorer result. The recipe itself gives no season.
- VerjuiceThe "juice of some unripe grapes" is verjuice, once a standard household souring agent, and it is sold bottled again by specialist grocers. It is generally milder and less sharp than lemon, though the recipe states the preference without giving a reason.
- Three hours of macerationKeep the nuts covered in the refrigerator rather than at room temperature, and turn them two or three times, as the recipe directs.
- Season at the end as wellSalt drawn into the liquid over three hours; taste before serving and correct. A grind of black pepper just before it goes to the table gives more aroma than the pepper added at the start.
- Quantity and servingThe recipe gives no quantities beyond "some walnuts" and the juice of one or two lemons; about half a pound of kernels with one lemon will serve six to eight as a small side dish or an accompaniment to cheese. Serve it in a shallow dish with its liquid, not drained dry.
Oscar Tschirky's book collects the range of what a large American hotel kitchen was expected to produce around 1896, and this entry shows the older European sense of "salad" — anything dressed with salt or acid and eaten cold, with no obligation to involve lettuce. The preference for verjuice over lemon is the older habit surfacing: before cheap imported citrus, the juice pressed from unripe grapes was the standard kitchen acid across France, Italy and England. Pickled and salted walnuts of various kinds were long-standing British and American preserves, usually made with the green nut whole; this version is the quick, fresh cousin rather than something laid down. It is also, quietly, a dish for the season — it only makes sense where fresh walnuts and unripe grapes arrive at the same time in autumn.