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Walnut Catsup

A preserved walnut condiment made with vinegar, salt, spices, and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg 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 walnut mass

  1. Bruise the walnuts until they form a mass.

  2. Mix in the salt and 1 quart of vinegar.

  3. Stir daily for 14 days.

  4. Strain and squeeze the mixture through a cloth and set aside.

Extract the husks

  1. Add ½ pint of vinegar to the husks and let stand overnight.

  2. Strain and squeeze the husks as before.

  3. Combine the liquid with the reserved liquid.

Season and bottle

  1. Add whole pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes, covered.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  4. Bottle the catsup and secure with new corks dipped in melted rosin.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 flavour base and bitter, tannin-rich character of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and adds sharp acidity that balances the walnuts.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the walnuts and helps preserve the mixture during the fortnight of standing.
Whole pepper
Adds pungent aroma and heat that carries through the long-cooked liquid.

The step that matters

Stir daily for 14 days. The walnut mass must be stirred regularly while it stands so the salt and vinegar penetrate evenly and it ferments and breaks down without spoiling. Skipping days can leave pockets that spoil.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Cashew nutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, clove, nutmeg, ginger. 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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