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Walnut Catchup

A walnut-based condiment made by fermenting walnuts with salt, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Gather green walnuts and pierce them with a coarse needle or crush them with a wooden mallet.

  2. Place the walnuts in a pan and cover with a mixture of soft water and coarse sea salt.

  3. Let the mixture sit for 4-5 days, mashing and turning daily.

Make the chutney

  1. On the fifth day, prepare a liquid of soft water and mild vinegar.

  2. Bring the liquid to a boil and pour 1 quart over every dozen walnuts.

  3. Mash the walnuts and strain the liquid through a bag, pressing the rinds.

  4. Boil the walnut liquid gently for 1 hour, skimming as needed.

  5. Add 1 ounce of mixed pounded allspice and black pepper, 1 teaspoon of pounded cloves, 1 teaspoon of mace, and grated nutmeg to each quart of liquid.

  6. Return the mixture to the fire, cover, and boil for 45 minutes before bottling.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 of the chutney, releasing their juices and flavour during soaking and boiling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the walnuts and helps preserve the mixture during the long soak.
Mild vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the finished chutney.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the liquid.
Cloves
Adds strong aromatic spice flavour to the liquid.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling liquid over the walnuts in the correct ratio. Pouring boiling liquid over the walnuts helps extract their juices and flavour. Using the stated quantity per dozen walnuts keeps the balance of liquid, salt and vinegar correct for preserving the mixture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

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