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Walnut Catsup

A walnut-based condiment made with vinegar, beer, garlic, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Pound the walnuts in a mortar, adding the salt as you go.

  2. Pour in the vinegar and let the mixture sit until the walnuts turn black, stirring 3–4 times a day.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add the strong beer and boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it sit overnight to settle.

  3. Pour off the clear liquid from the sediment.

  4. Add the bruised garlic, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, and mace.

  5. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  6. Bottle and cork the catsup well the next day.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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

Walnuts
Provide the main flavour and dark colour as they steep in vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity that extracts flavour from the walnuts and helps preserve the ketchup.
Strong old beer
Adds malty depth and body to the liquid before boiling.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury flavour to the finished ketchup.

The step that matters

Letting the walnuts turn black in the vinegar. The walnuts need time and regular stirring to darken and release their flavour evenly. Stopping early leaves the ketchup pale and under-flavoured.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

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