Lacto – Fermented Green Walnuts

Pickled Green Walnuts are a bit of a Chefy thing and cost £5.95 for a 225g jar on-line. Pff! These cost us 39p and a bit of Salt….

Ingredients:-

Salt
Water
Green Walnuts
10% Acidity Spirit Vinegar

Method:-

(1) Make a 2% Brine. We used Himalayan Pink Salt because we had some. But any Salt will work as long as it doesn’t have Iodine salts as an anti-caking agent.
(2) Allow the brine to cool to room temperature.
(3) With a folk stab each Green Walnut several times. There are a great deal of Tannings in Green Walnuts and you are likely to have stained hands. Your skin will replace itself after about 3 weeks, but until then….. Or put some gloves on!
(4) In a clip top jar pack the Green Walnuts tightly and then add the Brine.
(5) There is some interesting chemistry about to occur which means that you will not need to worry about venting the brew. Leave unattended for 2 weeks. The colour changes are great fun if you have kids in the house however.
(6) Remove the now Green and Black Walnuts and allow to stand in the kitchen on kitchen paper overnight. They are still highly staining by the way.
(7) In the morning they will be uniformly Black.
(8) Add to jars and immerse in Spirit Vinegar.

Usually when Lacto – Fermenting I would leave the Pickle in it’s Brine for storage. These little chaps are slightly different and the intensity of flavour is sufficient after 2 weeks. They are very pungent and it is possible to “Over Egg” this gig, ending up with something that is simply overpowering.