As a child we had pickles usually with cold meat or with cheese; there were always pickled onions, usually piccalilli, sometimes a chutney of some sort, and whenever we could, pickled walnuts. My mum wasn’t very fond of pickles, although she might sometimes have a little chutney, my fussy sister didn’t like any of it, and my dad and I really enjoyed them all! The pickled onions (actually shallots) were often home-made, and my dad would always put extra spice in the jars of onions and vinegar, and I still do that today when I make them. Piccalilli I think was bought, I certainly don’t remember mum making any, but I recently did.
I don’t remember my mum making chutney either, although we were sometimes given jars by friends and neighbours… and pickled walnuts, we certainly never made them so how we came by them I am not sure… again they were probably gifts. I remember eating them at a favourite pub called the Trinity Foot, sadly now it is derelict, but every time we drive past it on the way to Cambridge along what was and may still be the Huntingdon Road, I think of pickled walnuts. They are black and knobbly and rather strange looking, as if they have been dug up out of the ground. To be honest I can’t remember the taste, only that I liked them.
Alison Uttley describes pickle and chutney making in her charming book Recipes from an Old Farmhouse
My dad once acquired some green walnuts and decided he would try pickling them; I don’t know where he found the recipe, Mrs Beeton probably, but I know he spent an age pricking them with a bodkin and then leaving them in the sun… unfortunately there was not much sunshine so they didn’t dry properly and he had to throw them away.
According to Mrs Uttley, they should be pricked and then soaked in brine which is changed every four days and then take them and spread them on a dish and leave in the sun. When they have turned black put them into jars and leave for three days covered in spiced vinegar (make the spiced vinegar from three onions, a pinch of cloves, peppercorns, allspice, ginger, mace, bay leaves and half a gallon of vinegar… enough for plenty of walnuts!) Then you should drain the walnuts and reboil the vinegar, pour it over again, cover and keep!
Lois Elsden 