(31 votes, average: 3.87 out of 5)
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Pickled Walnuts
A traditional English accompaniment to cold meats and blue cheeses, pickled walnuts have a buttery texture and sharp flavour with a hint of nuttiness that’s curiously addictive. You need to pick the walnut fruits before the nuts inside begin to harden – test one by seeing if you can push a skewer right through without any resistance – usually around late June.
The juice from the walnuts is very staining – as is the brine in which they steep – so wear gloves and an apron and mop up any spills as quickly as you can.
Makes : 2 × 750ml jars
Prep : 11 days + 1 month maturing
Cook : 5 minutes
- 850g green walnuts, picked before the shells begin to harden
- 750g fine sea salt
- 2 onions
- 850ml cider vinegar
- 1 large wood avens root
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
Method
- Wash the walnuts and let them drain. In a large bowl, make a brine using 150ml of the salt with 1.5 litres of water. Wearing gloves, prick each walnut in several places with a skewer and add them to the brine. When all the walnuts are done, place a small upturned plate on top to keep the nuts submerged. Cover the bowl and leave for ten days, changing the brine every two days. The brine will get very black and silty as the tannin is purged from the walnuts, so wear gloves and an apron to prevent staining.
- When the ten days are up, drain and rinse the walnuts and put them on a wire rack to dry (use a baking sheet or roasting tin underneath to catch any drips). Leave them for about 24 hours until they have turned completely black.
- Pack the walnuts into two sterilised 750ml preserving jars. Chop the onions and put them into a pan with the vinegar, wood avens root, mustard seeds and peppercorns. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Strain the vinegar over the walnuts in the jars so that the nuts are fully submerged. Leave to cool, then fasten on the lids.
- Allow the walnuts to mature in the vinegar for 1 month before using.
Credits
Recipe and photos by Otherwise for Wild Food UK
COMMENTS
Hi I cannot find wood avens.. Maybe it doesn’t like our East Anglian clay?
What could I use instead?
Thanks
If you can’t find wood avens, you could use a cinnamon stick, or a ‘flower’ of star anise.
Wood Avens grows all over east Anglia and tastes of cloves which would be the best replacement
Without being controversial I don’t believe the walnuts are not soft enough with this recipe. If you simmer the walnuts in the pickling vinegar for 10 mins it makes so much difference
I top and tail the walnuts when I pick them.
My pickling vinegar is cup of dark brown sugar cup of balsamic vinegar cup of sherry or cider vinegar repeated until you have the right quantity
I do use a teaspoon of pepper corns and a cinnamon stick . This recipe was given to me by a Michelin star chef. but I would like to know Opeys recipe
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your helpful notes. The finished texture will very much depend on how mature the nuts are when you pickle them, and how juicy they are, and so on. We found that the 10 days in the brine gave the walnuts we picked a soft, buttery texture, without needing to simmer them for any longer than five minutes in the vinegar (which we’ve found can make them a bit too vinegary). Your version will be sweeter than ours – but it does sound delicious!
Hi Paul,
Could I kindly ask, if you top and tail do you need to prick them too?
Thanks
Johanna