Why it works: Walnut and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,769 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Walnut Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prick the walnuts in several places and place them in a jar.
Add a handful of salt for every 25 walnuts and enough water to cover them.
Brine
Break the walnuts with a wooden mallet and let them sit in the brine for two weeks, stirring twice daily.
Extract and strain
Drain the liquid into a saucepan and cover the walnut shells with boiling vinegar to extract remaining juice.
Crush the shells to a pulp and strain the mixture.
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.
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Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,769 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young walnuts
- Provide the main body and the dark, bitter-sweet juice that the ketchup is built from.
- Salt
- Draws liquid out of the walnuts and helps preserve the brine during the long soak.
- Boiling vinegar
- Extracts the remaining juice from the shells and adds acidity that helps preserve the ketchup.
The step that matters
Breaking and brining the walnuts. Breaking the walnuts exposes the flesh and shells to the brine so the salt can draw out juice. Stirring helps the salt reach all pieces evenly, and the long soak lets flavour develop.
“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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