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Walnut Catsup

A preserved walnut sauce made with vinegar, spices, and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Wash and rub the walnuts, then pierce them in several places with a darning needle.

  2. Place the walnuts in a jar, sprinkle with coarse sea salt, and cover with vinegar.

  3. Let the mixture stand for one week.

  4. Mash and stir the walnuts well, then strain and press out the juice.

Make the ketchup

  1. In a preserve kettle, combine the juice with cloves, allspice, mace, whole peppercorns, garlic, ginger-root, and horseradish.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and let it simmer slowly for half an hour.

  3. Strain the mixture again and let it cool.

Bottle and age

  1. Bottle and seal the catsup, then let it stand for three to four months before using.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Garlic + horseradishtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together719 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 of the ketchup as they steep and release their juices.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, extracting flavour from the walnuts and keeping the ketchup stable.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the walnuts and helps preserve the mixture during the week-long steep.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that mellows and blends with the other spices.
Garlic
Contributes a pungent aroma and savoury depth to the finished ketchup.

The step that matters

Simmering the strained juice. Simmering gently for half an hour concentrates flavour and helps keep the ketchup stable, while a hard boil can make the spices turn bitter and cloud the liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, clove, allspice, garlic, ginger, horseradish):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, clove, allspice, garlic, ginger, horseradish. 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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