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Walnut Ketchup

A pickle of walnuts, vinegar, wine, spices, and aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,784 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Walnut Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Procure the walnuts at the time you can run a pin through them, slightly bruise, and put them into a jar with the salt and vinegar.

  2. Let them stand 8 days, stirring every day.

  3. Drain the liquor from them.

Make the ketchup

  1. Boil the liquor with the above ingredients for about 1/2 hour.

  2. It may be strained or not, as preferred.

  3. If required, add a little more vinegar or wine according to taste.

  4. When bottled well, seal the corks.

Make the walnut-shell liquor

  1. Put the walnut-shells into a pan with the water and a large quantity of salt.

  2. Let them stand for 10 days.

  3. Break the shells up in the water.

  4. Let it drain through a sieve, putting a heavy weight on top to express the juice.

  5. Place the mixture on the fire and remove all scum that may arise.

  6. Boil the liquor with the shallots, cloves, mace, pepper, and garlic, and let all simmer till the shallots sink.

  7. Put the liquor into a pan, and, when cold, bottle and cork closely.

  8. It should stand 6 months before using; if it ferments, it must be again boiled and skimmed.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

758Calories
23 gProtein
15 gFat
125 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 12 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Port Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Horseradishnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Horseradish + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Horseradish + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together259 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Horseradish + flourtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together743 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Provide the main flavour and dark colour of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the liquor and balances its richness.
Port wine
Adds body and sweetness that rounds out the sharp acidity.
Shalots
Contribute savoury aroma and depth as they simmer into the liquor.
Milk
Adds richness and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil the liquor and skim off the scum. Scum rising from the liquor carries impurities that can spoil the ketchup; removing it keeps the liquid clear and stable. If the ketchup ferments, reboiling and skimming again is needed to stop spoilage.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, port wine, cream, milk, horseradish, walnut, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, port wine, cream, milk, horseradish, walnut, flour. 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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