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Walnut-Ketchup of the Finest Quality

A condiment made by simmering walnut juice with anchovies, shallots, cloves, mace, pepper, and garlic, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Walnut-Ketchup of the Finest Quality

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup

  1. Simmer the walnut juice and skim it well.

  2. Add anchovies, shallots, cloves, mace, pepper, and garlic.

  3. Continue to simmer until the shallots sink.

Bottle and store

  1. Cool the mixture, then bottle it, dividing the spices evenly.

  2. Cork tightly, cover with a bladder, and store in small bottles.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Walnut juice
Provides the liquid base and the characteristic bitter, tannic flavour of the ketchup.
Anchovies
Dissolve during long simmering to add deep savoury flavour and umami.
Shalots
Break down into the body and sweetness that thickens the ketchup.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice that helps preserve the mixture.
Mace
Adds a delicate, aromatic warmth that complements the other spices.

The step that matters

Skimming the walnut juice. Simmering the raw juice releases foam and impurities that rise to the surface. Skimming them well keeps the finished ketchup clear and prevents off flavours from concentrating during the long cook.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, clove, pepper, garlic. 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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