[2] There is a reference to "a mutton chop and a pickled walnut" in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens and a mention in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.
There is one thing indeed which must be regarded in this Pickle, which is, that every one does not love the Taste of Onion or Garlick; but that may be omitted as we please, only supplying the place with Ginger.
The nuts are then transferred to a gallipot with a large clove-studded garlic clove, mustard seeds on top with spices, covered with vine leaves over which the pickling liquid is poured.
Pickled walnuts are still commonly eaten in England, particularly at Christmas served with an English blue cheese such as Stilton.
In Chapter 49 of his novel The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836, Charles Dickens writes:[4] However, there he lay, and I have heard my uncle say, many a time, that the man said who picked him up that he was smiling as merrily as if he had tumbled out for a treat, and that after they had bled him, the first faint glimmerings of returning animation, were his jumping up in bed, bursting out into a loud laugh, kissing the young woman who held the basin, and demanding a mutton chop and a pickled walnut.
Most recipes say in Britain that late June is about the best time to pick them; use of rubber gloves is recommended to protect the skin.