Pickled walnuts

@pete we used an old plastic plate and had a very old container to sit on the top to keep it all underneath.
They do need to be under the brine and not floating.

 

@pete we have now taken the walnuts out of the 2nd brine solution and put them on a tray in single fashion and on the table in the conservatory and already they are going black. They need to dry out and turn completely black before the "pickling" gets done.

 

@pete only a few hours out of the brine and in sunshine in the conservatory and already black. Amazing. Maybe tomorrow I start the pickling.

 

I've just put mine in the second batch of brine today, some are fairly black already.

 

@pete Have now done the pickling. Had to make up 3 batches of the vinegar with the spices etc and then had to wait for them to cool before adding them to the walnuts. Recipe suggests leaving them for a month before eating. Think that once we have tried some and they are OK we will be giving them to family and friends...far too many for just us to eat!

 

I've bought some cloves but ended up with ground cloves, will that be ok do you think?
I've got cider vinegar and cinnamon, I can grab some fresh ginger when I'm next in the shop.

 

If you haven't opened them, take them back and exchange for whole cloves.

 

Or I can send you some @pete

 

I opened them for a sniff.

Very kind but I can get some when I get the ginger, didn't spot they were ground.

 

@pete as always I adapt recipes to what I have in the larder. So go with what you have and as I said before we are both experimenting. It could be OK but then maybe not. Give it a go.

 

There's a recipe in Sainsbury's magazine this month which includes pickled walnuts. Now there's a coincidence!

 

Did you wash the salt off before drying?

 

@pete no I didn't but maybe I should have but none of the recipes I looked at said to do that.

 

OK I wont, will be getting mine out the brine tomorrow hopefully, I was just wondering if they are going to turn out really salty, but I suppose the idea is that the salt has gone right into the nuts anyway.

 

@pete I did add some sugar in the final vinegar solution to some of them as one recipe did say to add this to give it a more sweeter pickle. Does that make sense?