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Sauce

Walnut Catsup

A fermented walnut-based sauce with shallots, garlic, vinegar, and spices, aged for 14 days.

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 Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Beat the walnuts in a large mortar until thoroughly broken.

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

  3. Let the mixture stand for 14 days.

  4. Stir the mixture twice daily.

Make the ketchup

  1. Strain off the liquid.

  2. Transfer the liquid to a stewpan.

  3. Add the anchovies, whole pepper, cloves, and mace to the stewpan.

  4. Boil the liquid for 30 minutes.

  5. Skim off any foam.

  6. Strain the liquid again.

  7. Let the liquid cool.

Bottle and store

  1. Pour the clear liquid into small bottles.

  2. Cork the bottles tightly.

  3. Store the bottles in a dry place.

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. 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 main body and bitter, earthy flavour of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving medium and gives the ketchup its sharp acidity.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out liquid and helps preserve the mixture during the long standing period.
Shallots
Add savoury, aromatic flavour to the liquid as it stands.
Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid to add deep savoury, umami depth.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice notes to the finished liquid.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand for 14 days with twice-daily stirring. The walnuts must steep long enough for their flavour and colour to extract fully into the vinegar, and regular stirring keeps the solids in contact with the liquid so the infusion is even.

Swap the mace

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

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

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