Philip's pickled walnuts + recipes

• 1 Jun, 2010
• 2 likes

pickled walnuts
(of which I am not particularly fond, but my husband is)

From the internet:
Pickling walnuts is a three-week process from picking to preserving, it is dead simple to make a plentiful supply of pickled walnuts

Ingredients

2kg freshly picked black walnuts
225g salt Sweet Pickling Syrup

1 litre malt vinegar
500g brown sugar
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

In the UK pick walnuts at the end of June before the hard nut forms inside the green shiny case. Pick a bucketful and, wearing rubber gloves, prick each walnut a couple of times with a fork. Watch out for the clear juice this produces. It is deceptive, as it stains a dark brown.

Cover the walnuts with water and add salt. Leave for a week, then drain and renew with fresh brine solution for another week or so.

Next, lay walnuts out on trays in a dry, airy place. In a couple of days they will turn jet black. Now the walnuts are ready for to be pickled..
For the sweet pickling syrup

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring syrup mix to the boil, then add walnuts and simmer for 15 minutes.

Cool and spoon walnuts into large jars, then cover with syrup. They will last for years. These pickled walnuts are great with cheese or cold meats, and make an interesting colour contrast on a pile of mashed potato (this is not the recipe my husband used).
Mrs. Beeton's recipe:
PICKLED WALNUTS (Very Good). INGREDIENTS: 100 walnuts, salt and water. To each quart of vinegar allow 2 oz. of whole black pepper, 1 oz. of allspice, 1 oz. of bruised ginger.
Procure the walnuts while young; be careful they are not woody, and prick them well with a fork; prepare a strong brine of salt and water (4 lbs. of salt to each gallon of water), into which put the walnuts, letting them remain 9 days, and changing the brine every third day; drain them off, put them on a dish, place it in the sun until they become perfectly black, which will be in 2 or 3 days; have ready dry jars, into which place the walnuts, and do not quite fill the jars. Boil sufficient vinegar to cover them, for 10 minutes, with spices in the above proportion, and pour it hot over the walnuts, which must be quite covered with the pickle; tie down with bladder, and keep in a dry place. They will be fit for use in a month, and will keep good 2 or 3 years. (I have transcribed this exactly as it was in her original book).