Wine and walnut pairing…

Posted on | February 12, 2006

Still on the subject of food and wine pairing…

I’ve been reading the Diary of Samuel Pepys 1660-1669…again. If you have never done so can I recommend it to you? A fascinating insight into London life in the 17th century. There are a few references to wine (much has been written on these) and I just came across this one:

“21st September (Office day). There all the morning and afternoon till 4 o’clock. Hence to Whitehall. Back by water [Pepys spent a lot of time travelling around London on the Thames] about 8 o’clock and went to the Hoop Tavern, and (by a former agreement) sent for Mr Chaplin, who with Nicholas Osborne and one Daniel came to us and we drank of two or three quarts of wine which was very good; and we did eat above two hundred walnuts. About 10 o’clock we broke up and so home….”

Sadly, Pepys doesn’t mention the kind of wine he was drinking and, in truth, they drink in some moderation. 2-3 quarts among 4 of them is barely a bottle each even if one assumes it was 3 quarts and not two. I’m talking about a period of history when the abuses of alcohol were not so well considered and where, after all, the average life expectancy in London was well below 40 years of age (he was then in his late twenties). Unless, of course, they were drinking fortified wine and forgot to mention it. Nor, does he describe its colour. At this time wine was drunk from the cask and the Dutch had recently invented the process of sulphuring the inside of the casks which helped stabilise the wines.

But… ‘above two hundred walnuts’. That would be around 50-60 each. Walnuts are interesting because they contain a very high amount of fat and are highly nutritious: water: 5%; protein: 15%; fat: 63%; carbohydrates: 13%; fiber: 2%; minerals: 2%. If you ate 50 of them you’d know about it. However, particularly interesting is that they can be prone to spontaneous combustion resulting from their fat decomposition at the wrong storage temperatures or from moisture uptake which wouldn’t make them very suitable for shipping around the world. I wonder how many ships carrying wine sank in the 17th century as result of their walnut cargo burning up…?

Another point worth considering is the time taken to crack open and swallow the nuts themselves. They had approximately 2 hours to consume 5o nuts each. This is a rate of consumption of approximately 1 nut every 2.4 minutes. The sound of four people cracking their walnuts would certainly have been a hinder to much conversation.

However, in considering the paragraph in more detail there are two other small items which I think are of note:

‘Back by water’: I do not recollect any reference by Pepys in his diaries about the tides in the Thames. These would impact in a number of ways. The height of water which meant that jetties had to be built well out into the river whilst presumably some could only be embarked at certain times. And the tidal flow which is so strong that any waterman would have had difficulty rowing against it at certain times. Not to mention the hazards presented by bridges etc.

The ‘Hoop Tavern’ was noted for its fish… so why eat walnuts.. on a Friday?

The above is based upon my edited version of Pepy’s diary. From whence it goes to 24th September. This presents a somewhat deceptive picture and perhaps he drank and ate more than he says for in the full unexpurgated version of his diaries he writes on the 22nd September, 1660:

“To Westminster to my Lord’s, and there in the house of office vomited up all my breakfast, my stomach being ill all this day by reason of the last night’s debauch.”

Well, I don’t think it was the wine… There’s a lesson in here somewhere. And isn’t it amazing what you can extract from one small paragraph?

FC

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