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Sauce

Catsup, Walnut

A walnut catsup made with vinegar, spices, and sweetener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Catsup, Walnut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnut liquid

  1. Beat the walnuts in a wooden mortar.

  2. Combine the beaten walnuts with the vinegar and strain through a coarse cloth.

  3. If the mixture tastes too strong, add more vinegar.

Season and bottle

  1. Add ginger, black pepper, allspice, black mustard seed, garlic, brown sugar, and horseradish to the vinegar.

  2. Mix all ingredients well, then bottle and seal.

  3. If the weather is warm, place the bottles in the sun for 7 to 10 days, then store in a dry cellar.

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Provide the main body and rich, earthy flavor of the catsup.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid base and preserving acid that carries the other flavors.
Black mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent heat that balances the sweetness of the brown sugar.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and savory depth.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar and spices.
Horseradish
Adds pungent, sharp heat that gives the catsup its bite.

The step that matters

Taste after straining and adjust with vinegar. The walnut liquid can be too strong in flavor before the other seasonings are added. Diluting it with more vinegar at this point keeps the final balance of intensity and acidity right, and the vinegar also helps preserve the sauce once it is bottled.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, mustard, garlic, sugar):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Cashew nutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, mustard, garlic, sugar. 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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