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Walnut Ketchup

A condiment made from walnuts steeped in ale or vinegar, then reduced with garlic, anchovies, wine, spices, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the walnuts

  1. Place walnuts in jars and cover with cold strong ale or vinegar.

  2. Seal jars tightly and let them sit for a year.

Make the ketchup

  1. Remove walnuts and add garlic, anchovies, red wine, mace, cloves, black pepper, Jamaica pepper, and ginger to the liquor.

  2. Boil the mixture until reduced by half.

  3. Bottle the ketchup the next day for use.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Walnuts
Provide the base flavor and body of the ketchup as they steep in the liquid.
Anchovies
Add deep savory umami flavor that rounds out the sauce.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the liquor, helping to balance the richness.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and savory sharpness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced by half. Boiling concentrates the liquid and its flavors while driving off water, so the ketchup thickens and keeps better. Stopping early leaves it thin and more prone to spoiling.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, garlic, red wine, clove, pepper, ginger. 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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