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Walnut Ketchup

A condiment made from bruised walnut shells, salt, ginger, black pepper, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bruise the walnut shells in a press or with a wooden mallet.

  2. Mix the bruised shells with the coarse sea salt.

Layer and steep

  1. Layer the mixture in a container, adding the spices.

  2. Cover and let it sit to develop flavor.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Walnut shells
Form the base of the ketchup and supply its dark color and tannin-driven bitterness as they steep.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the shells and helps preserve the mixture during steeping.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, warm aroma that brightens the deep flavor of the shells.
Cloves
Contribute a strong, warm aroma that carries through the steeped mixture.

Swap the walnut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, 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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