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Nuts / Pickled in vinegar

Pickled green walnuts

Whole young walnuts pickled in spiced vinegar. Once mature, they are dark and soft enough to slice and serve with cheese.

Recipe author: Vegetarian Society

Time
10 days brining + drying time + 6 weeks maturing
Makes
1 batch (1 kg green walnuts)
Season and ingredients
Early summer, while the inner shells are still soft
Method
Brining, then pickling in vinegar
Jump to the instructions ↓Ingredients and their stories ↓Download printable PDF
Pickled green walnuts · Serving suggestion
Serving suggestion

Storage

Fermentarnia recommends keeping the walnuts in the fridge during brining and maturation.

Instructions

Download printable PDF

Recipe card to download and print

0 / 5 steps completed

  1. Brine the walnuts

    Prick the walnuts all over with a thick needle and place in a ceramic bowl. Dissolve half the salt in half the water and pour over the walnuts. Cover and refrigerate for 5 days, following Fermentarnia’s recommendation. Stir twice a day.

  2. Change the brine

    Drain. Dissolve the remaining salt in the remaining water and pour this fresh brine over the walnuts. Refrigerate for another 5 days, stirring twice a day.

  3. Dry until black

    Drain and spread the walnuts in a single layer on a flat dish. Leave in the sun until they turn black.

  4. Make the spiced vinegar

    Crush the peppercorns and allspice berries. Simmer the vinegar with all the spices for 20 minutes, then cool and strain. Pack the walnuts into sterilised wide-mouth jars, filling them no more than ¾ full. Pour in the spiced vinegar.

  5. Leave to mature

    Seal the jars and refrigerate for 6 weeks before serving.

Tips

Notes from Fermentarnia

The source calls for a cool place but gives no temperature. Fermentarnia recommends using the fridge for both brining and maturation.

Choose young walnuts whose inner shells have not hardened: a test walnut should be easy to pierce right through. Wear gloves to protect your hands from staining.

Contains walnuts.

How to serve

Thinly slice and serve with cheese or roasted vegetables.

Ingredients / history / science

Discover the ingredients and their stories

What goes into the jar? Where does the flavour come from? Open a topic and explore its sources.

About the ingredientsWhy use the whole walnut?

This pickle uses the whole young fruit, including its green husk. It must be gathered before a hard shell forms inside: a test walnut should be easy to cut or pierce through. Its stage of development matters more than its colour alone. After pickling, the dark walnut can be sliced.

History on a plateA recipe shared by an English woman

NC State University Libraries provides a pickled walnut recipe published in an American agricultural magazine in 1869. The writer of the “Aunt Hattie” column said she had obtained it from an English woman. It described young walnuts, a soak in brine, darkening in the air and a spiced vinegar pickling liquid.

A closer lookWhy the shell must still be soft

As a walnut matures, lignin is deposited in the cell walls of its inner shell, making it hard. This recipe uses the whole young fruit, so it must be picked before the shell hardens. The test walnut should still be easy to pierce right through.

Recipe sources

This recipe is based on the sources listed above.

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