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Sauce

Walnut Catsup

A fermented walnut-based sauce with anchovies, spices, and port wine lees.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the walnuts

  1. Place ripe green walnut shells in a jar.

  2. Cover the shells with strong cold vinegar and secure the jar tightly.

  3. Let the mixture sit for twelve months.

  4. After a year, strain the mixture and press the juice through a strong sieve.

Season and cook

  1. For every gallon of liquid, add the anchovies, garlic, Jamaica pepper, cloves, mace, black pepper, and ginger.

  2. Add the port wine lees and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Simmer for ten minutes.

  4. Skim the surface and let the mixture sit for twenty-four hours.

  5. Boil the mixture again until it is reduced by half.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the catsup.

  2. Cork the bottle and seal with wax.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green walnut shells
Provide the main flavour base, extracted into the vinegar over a long steep.
Strong vinegar
Acts as the solvent and preservative, drawing out flavour from the shells over time.
Anchovies
Add deep savoury umami flavour that melts into the liquid during cooking.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the finished sauce.
Port wine lees
Contribute body, sweetness and fermented depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing by half. Boiling down the liquid concentrates flavour and thickens the sauce. Stopping too early leaves it thin and less stable, while over-reducing can make it overly salty and harsh.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, garlic, pepper, clove, ginger, port wine):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, garlic, pepper, clove, ginger, port wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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