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Walnut Ketchup

A fermented walnut condiment seasoned with spices, vinegar, and anchovies.

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

Macerate the walnuts

  1. Procure walnuts that can be pierced with a pin, slightly bruise them, and place in a jar with salt and vinegar.

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

Cook and bottle

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

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

  3. Bottle the ketchup and seal the corks well.

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
Form the main body of the ketchup and contribute its nutty flavor.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the flavor and helps preserve the ketchup.
Anchovies
Add savory depth and saltiness that rounds out the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute a mild aromatic sharpness to the flavor base.

The step that matters

Stand the walnuts for 8 days, stirring daily. The vinegar and salt must slowly soak into the walnuts to draw out their flavor and soften them. Daily stirring keeps every piece evenly submerged and in contact with the liquid so the maceration is uniform.

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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