Pickled walnuts

[Tancrède]

Just a reminder that the traditional cut-off date for gathering walnuts for pickling  -  Midsummer Day (24th June)  -  is fast approaching.  Last year, alas, mine had already become ususably woody by this date and had to be converted at the last minute into vin de noix instead.  A mystifying circumstance given the poorness of the season, and I am determined not to be caught out again.  The nuts are already swelling nicely.

So, if you wish to provide yourself with this virtually free delicacy, I urge you to think about giving your brine pan a preparatory flick with the duster and reconnoitering the highways and hedgerows…

[Clair]

Please enlighten me [:)]

How do you pickle walnuts and when/how do you eat them?[8-)]

[Tancrède]

Gather walnuts whilst they are green and well-developed, but before the shell has begun to form.  Pr1ck each walnut with a fork.  It is essential to wear gloves for this as the juice stains like fury.

To 6 kg walnuts

add 4 litres of boiling water (which should be sufficient to cover them so that they are slightly free).

and 675 g sea salt, viz at rate of 125 g per 2 kg nuts.

Leave to soak for ten days, stirring occasionally.

Drain and place in trays exposed to sun and air for three days.  They will turn a pleasing bronze colour.

Pack nuts into jars with spices and vinegar.  I use 1.5 litre jars.

To each 1.5 litre jar: 

two good slivers of fresh ginger; 

a teaspoon of whole black mustard seed; 

a teaspoon of whole peppercorns; 

a teaspoon of whole allspice; 

three cloves;

two birdseye peppers,

(or any other combination of pickling spices which commends itself).

Dissolve 1 kg sugar in 4.5 litres of vinegar and bring to the boil, add 4 teaspoons of mustard powder.

Pour over walnuts to cover. 

Seal the jars.

The above will give a final volume about 8 litres. The walnuts will be ready to eat after a month or so, and will remain in perfect condition for at least two years, and probably much longer.

They are used to accompany cold meats or hard cheese.

The liquor in which the nuts have been pickled is delicious and many people throw it, rather unimaginatively I feel, down the sink.  It should be added to the output of your vinaigrier.

[Clair]

Thank you for that [:)]

I had heard of them but have never had the opportunity to taste them.

[mint]

Timely post, Gengulphus, thank you.

We have 2 walnut trees and the strange thing is that although one of them is full of nuts, the other one is virtually bare.  Last year, both trees produced masses of nuts and we had bags full of them to give away.

I look at the barren tree and can't see anything resembling a nut on it.  My French knowledgeable neighbour called this evening and we asked him about this.  He said that firstly, it is a very old tree and secondly, we've had too much rain.

Any walnut expert on the forum who can throw some light on this?

[Cat]

Yes, thanks for that Gengulphus.  I've never tasted a pickled walnut, but as we have a few walnut trees I might give it a go.  I'll set off this minute to check the state of my nuts, or will do just as soon as I've found my snorkel and flippers.

My, didn't it rain a lot last night [blink]

[Tancrède]

[quote user="Cat"]My, didn't it rain a lot last night…[/quote]

I forgot to mention that the first part of the process is an excellent occupation to have up your sleeve for wet weather guests.

After a morning spent stabbing half a hundredweight of walnuts even the dreariest will suddenly reveal a surprising and unsuspected ability to find ways of entertaining themselves.

[mint]

Another excellent tip, Gengulphus.  Why, they might, with any luck, take themselves off for the day![:D]

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Why, they might, with any luck, take themselves off for the day![/quote]

I think you can bank on it.  Once you get them through the door the victory is yours.  Double score if you can achieve this before 11 o'clock.

[Iceni]

[quote user="Gengulphus"]

Drain and place in trays exposed to sun and air for three days. 

[/quote]

You omitted the need to drive to N Africa to find 3 days sun. Otherwise I might try your recipe.

John

[tracteurtom]

With all this talk of pickled walnuts I feel I must mention that they are, well shall I just say, an acquired taste [:P]

[lostinfrance]

[quote user="tracteurtom"]With all this talk of pickled walnuts I feel I must mention that they are, well shall I just say, an acquired taste [:P]

[/quote]

I am with you,

                      The waste of a good walnut.

                                                                Leave them as they are,and enjoy.

[Tancrède]

[quote user="tracteurtom"]With all this talk of pickled walnuts I feel I must mention that they are, well shall I just say, an acquired taste…

[/quote]Certainly a large number of people appear to acquired a taste for mine.

[mint]

Gengulphus, can you get mustard powder readily in the supermarkets?  I don't think I have seen any.  Oh, sorry, should explain to people who haven't read the whole thread that the mustard powder is used in G's recipe for pickling walnuts.

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Gengulphus, can you get mustard powder readily in the supermarkets? [/quote]

Sorry to have inadvertantly raised false hopes, but I think I can give a fairly definitive No to that.  I am still coasting along on a 1 lb tin of Colemans which, given the high quality of French 'made mustard', I rarely use apart from in recipes.

But I don't think that it is vital to the success of the recipe  -  simply add a bit more mustard seed to the liquid.

PS:  Local enquiries are not instantly encouraging:   I've never heard of it…  It doesn't exist…  It's not manufactured…  It can't be ordered…  There isn't such a thing…  The usual encouraging patter of the retail trade in France.  But on this occasion I am slightly inclined to believe them as a search for moutarde en poudre at Google images brings up a 1 lb tin of Colemans as the first image.

But I believe that I have occasionally seen mustard powder on the spice stalls in markets.

[Clair]

I have recently found Colman's mustard powder in a supermarket. It could have been either Carrefour or Géant in Brive and it definitely was in the foreign foods section.

[mint]

Thanks, Clair.  Shall look in a big supermarket next time I'm in Cognac.  Brive is a bit far for me!

[Lilly]

Dear Gengulphas,

Thank you so much for this recipe, I made Pickled walnuts a couple of years ago with a recipe I found on the net and a few additives from the back of a well known jar of said walnuts, I was dissapointed with the result far too vinigary and over salty and i don't know anyone that has a good recipe till now! so all be it a bit late I'll get pickling this weekend, incidently what type of vinigar do you use as I like malt for pickling but can't get large quantities easily.

For the Frenchies out there use them in the same places you would eat cornichons and superb with cheese, I have used them in a Venison casserole fantastic I would imagine Sanglier would work also.

XX

[Tancrède]

[quote user="Lilly"]I'll get pickling this weekend…  what type of vinigar do you use as I like malt for pickling but can't get large quantities easily.[/quote]

Well, I wish you good luck, and hope that the recipe is useful.

I have about 10 kg basking in the sunshine at the moment.  Living in a town I have to do this in the street  -  and it is always quite an interesting experience as it invariably attracts little knots of concerned spectators who are naturally completely baffled as to what these bronze/black and slightly dimpled objects are.  They look rather like enormous Greek olives.

Even when I was in Pudding Island I used to use red wine vinegar for this purpose.  Perversely it is much easier to find this in quantity in England than in France.  Malt vinegar is equally good, but I doubt very much if you would find this exotic commodity in France.

But don't let the time slip by too much.  By 1st July last year my walnuts were unusably woody and had to be diverted to vin de noix instead.

It seems to be a very bad year indeed for walnuts in this area.  And for quinces and medlars;  and poor for apples, pears, plums and cormes.

[mint]

Talk about a bad year, we have 2 walnut trees and only one of them seems to have nuts.  The other one is almost completely without.

The cherry tree only had titchy sour little fruits, the plum tree likewise.

As for the fig tree, the only usable things on it are maybe the leaves and those only if you are going to a fancy dress ball as Adam and Eve.

What's the reason, does anyone have any theories?

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]What's the reason, does anyone have any theories?[/quote]I think that there are too many variables for there to be one unified theory to explain the occurrence of poor years for top-fruit  -  but the considerations include:

The weather last year  -  affecting the production of fruit buds.

The weather this year  -  affecting pollination.

The presence or absence of pollinating insects at a suitable time.

The adverse effect of Varroa jacobsoni on wild colonies of honeybees.

The inclination of trees to drop immature fruit, for a variety of reasons.

The tendency of many mature fruit trees to adopt a biennial pattern of bearing.

The malign influence of the Ice Saints.

[mint]

The Ice Saints, Gengulphus, are you sure?

You'll be recommending a book on hagiography for me to read next!  BTW, I've started the Nebuly Coat that you mentioned elsewhere.  That's got all the ingredients I love, even if it doesn't mention mustard powder!

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]The Ice Saints, Gengulphus, are you sure?[/quote]Am I sure what, SW17?  I am sure, along with my neighbours, and Rabelais, that they must be treated with great caution. 

Ces Saincts passent pour Saincts Gresleurs, Geleurs,

et Gateurs du Bourgeon.

These saints are known as bringers of hail, bearers of frost,

and despoilers of the swelling bud.

They were not kind here this year, and last year brought hail every

day.  And a few years ago 4" of hailstones the size of sugar cubes, so that

the vines were reduced to spinach. 

[quote user="sweet 17"]I've started the Nebuly Coat that you mentioned elsewhere.  That's got all the ingredients I love, even if it doesn't mention mustard powder![/quote]I am so glad.  This neglected novel is one of the great.  It would not by amongst my Desert Island eight, but certainly amongst my fifty.  He really only had one novel in him, but it was a corker.  How on earth did you get it so quickly?

Yes I do recommend (and read) hagiography, but one cannot read for laughs all the time  -  novels are the more important.