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Walnut Ketchup

A fermented walnut-based condiment made by boiling walnut shells with spices and allowing it to mature.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and shallot 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 Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnut liquid

  1. Place the walnut shells in a pan with the water and salt.

  2. Let them stand for 10 days.

  3. Boil the shells in the water, then drain through a sieve, pressing down with a heavy weight to extract the juice.

Flavour and bottle

  1. Place the liquid in a pot and add the shallots, cloves, mace, pepper, and garlic.

  2. Simmer until the shallots sink.

  3. Once cooled, bottle the mixture and seal tightly.

  4. Let it stand for 6 months before using.

  5. If it ferments, boil again and strain.

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. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Walnut + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

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

  5. Clove + macetop 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

Walnut shells
Provide the main flavour and dark colour of the ketchup through their extracted juice.
Salt
Helps draw out the liquid and preserves the mixture against spoilage.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the finished ketchup.
Shallots
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Let the ketchup stand for 6 months before using. The long resting period lets the flavours mellow and blend while the sealed mixture matures. Opening early or skipping the rest leaves the taste harsh and raises the chance of fermentation, which the recipe handles by boiling again and straining.

Swap the mace

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

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

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