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Sauce

Walnut Catsup

A walnut-based sauce made with shallots, garlic, vinegar, anchovies, pepper, mace, cloves, and salt, steeped and strained for use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Walnut Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnut infusion

  1. Beat in a large mortar a hundred green walnuts until they are thoroughly broken.

  2. Put the broken walnuts into a jar with six ounces of shallots cut into pieces, a head of garlic, two quarts of vinegar and half a pound of salt.

  3. Let them stand for a fortnight, stirring them twice a day.

  4. Strain off the liquor.

Make the ketchup

  1. Put the liquor into a stewpan with the anchovies, whole pepper, half an ounce of cloves and a quarter of an ounce of mace.

  2. Boil the mixture for half an hour.

  3. Skim the mixture well, then strain it off.

Bottle and store

  1. When cold, pour it clear from any sediment into small bottles.

  2. Cork the bottles down closely and store them in a dry place.

  3. Use the sediment for flavoring sauces.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

90Calories
2 gProtein
3 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. 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. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green walnuts
Provide the dark, earthy, slightly bitter base flavour that defines the ketchup.
Vinegar
Extracts flavour from the walnuts and shallots and acts as the preserving liquid.
Anchovies
Add savoury depth and saltiness that rounds out the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, sharp allium flavour to the infusion.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows during the long steep and boil.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for half an hour. Boiling concentrates the liquor and drives off raw vinegar sharpness, while skimming removes foam and impurities so the finished sauce is clear and stable.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, garlic, vinegar, pepper, clove, walnut. 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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