Green walnuts brined, blackened, and packed in spiced malt vinegar: England's oldest walnut preparation
Origin: England
From the journey of Walnut.
Pickled walnuts are the most distinctly English thing that has ever been done to a walnut. They appear in English cookery manuscripts from the early 17th century; that narrow window of time when the walnut harvest was well established in English orchards (thanks to Roman and Norman planting), domestic preserving had become a serious household science, and the English taste for sharp, vinegar-cured condiments alongside cold meat was at its most developed. The technique requires a specific moment in the walnut's calendar: late June to early July, before the shell hardens inside the hull. At this stage the entire walnut; hull, unformed shell, and soft embryonic kernel; can be pricked through with a skewer. Left in salt brine for several weeks, the walnut blackens. Spread in the sun and air-dried until the surface is uniformly black and tacky, it is then packed in spiced malt vinegar. The result bears almost no resemblance to a dried walnut: deeply savoury, almost meat-like in its umami richness, with the sharpness of the vinegar and the warmth of allspice and cloves cutting through. English cooks serve pickled walnuts with cold beef, with mature cheddar on a ploughman's board, with game pies and potted meats, and alongside roast pork. They were an essential provision in the pantries of the 17th-century English settlers who departed for Virginia: a jar of pickled walnuts required no refrigeration, kept for a year or more, and carried an entire English way of eating preserved in brine. That same taste for walnut-as-condiment would not transfer to Virginia's black walnut, whose flavour was too pungent for pickling. Instead, the settlers found other uses for the native nut; and the English pickled walnut remained uniquely English.
Pickled walnuts keep for at least a year in unopened jars stored in a cool, dark place. Once opened, use within 3 months and keep refrigerated. Serve thinly sliced alongside mature cheddar, cold rare beef, or game pie. The pickling vinegar can be strained, reduced slightly, and used as a condiment or salad dressing; it has remarkable depth.
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