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Walnut Ketchup

A preserved walnut condiment made with vinegar, spices, anchovies, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove 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 Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Procure walnuts that can be pierced with a pin.

  2. Bruise the walnuts slightly.

  3. Place the walnuts in a jar with salt and vinegar.

  4. Let the mixture stand for 8 days, stirring daily.

Make the ketchup

  1. Drain the liquid and boil it with the other ingredients for about 30 minutes.

  2. Strain if desired, and adjust with more vinegar or wine to taste.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the ketchup and seal the corks.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 base and body as they steep and release their oils and tannins into the liquid.
Vinegar
Extracts flavour from the walnuts and gives the ketchup its sharp acidity and preservative bite.
Anchovies
Add deep savoury, umami depth that rounds out the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute sweetness and aromatic pungency to the boiled liquid.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, fruity depth and extra body, and can be used to adjust the final flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the walnuts stand for 8 days. The walnuts must steep long enough for vinegar and salt to draw out their flavour and tannins. Stirring daily keeps the walnuts evenly submerged and exposed, so the extraction is uniform and no part spoils.

Swap the mace

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

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

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