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Walnut Ketchup

A fermented walnut condiment made with vinegar, shallots, garlic, anchovies, pepper, cloves, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Bruise the walnuts in a bowl.

  2. Combine the walnuts, shallots, vinegar, garlic, and salt in a jar.

  3. Stir the mixture daily for 10 days.

  4. Strain the liquid into a pot.

Cook and bottle

  1. Add anchovies, whole pepper, cloves, and mace to the pot.

  2. Boil for 30-40 minutes, skimming regularly.

  3. Strain the mixture again.

  4. Let the liquid cool.

  5. Pour the liquid into small dry bottles, leaving sediment behind.

  6. Cork the bottles securely.

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. 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. 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

Young green walnuts
Provide the main flavour and dark colour of the ketchup as they steep in vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and extracts flavour from the walnuts and spices.
Anchovies
Add a savoury, salty depth that rounds out the sharp vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture from the walnuts and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Straining the liquid before bottling. Leaving sediment behind keeps the finished ketchup clear and stable. Cooling the liquid before bottling and using dry bottles also reduces the risk of spoilage.

Swap the mace

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

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

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