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Walnut Ketchup

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Walnut Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnut liquid

  1. Pound the walnuts and mix in the salt.

  2. Soak the mixture in vinegar for 4 days.

  3. Press through a fine cloth.

Cook the ketchup

  1. In a pot, combine the extracted liquid with cloves, mace, Cayenne, anchovies, eschalots, and garlic.

  2. Boil for 45 minutes, skimming until clear.

  3. Add port wine and simmer for a few more minutes.

  4. Let it cool, then pour off the clear ketchup.

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 + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 body of the ketchup once pressed into the liquid.
Anchovies
Add savoury depth and umami to the sauce during the long boil.
Vinegar
Extracts and preserves the walnut flavour while adding sharp acidity.
Salt
Draws liquid from the walnuts and helps preserve the mixture.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and a rounded, fruity aroma near the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Skimming during the 45-minute boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and impurities that rise to the surface, so the ketchup becomes clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, clove, garlic, port wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, clove, garlic, port wine. 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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