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Salad

Walnut Catchup

A walnut-based condiment made by steeping walnut shells with salt, spices, and ginger, then simmering and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove 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 Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the walnuts

  1. Combine walnut shells and salt in a tub, mixing well.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 6 days, mashing and beating it frequently.

  3. After 6 days, drain the liquid by banking the mixture to one side of the tub.

Make the ketchup

  1. Simmer the liquid in an iron boiler until scum forms.

  2. Bruise the ginger, black pepper, long pepper, and cloves, then add to the simmering liquid.

  3. Let it boil slowly for 30 minutes.

Bottle and age

  1. Bottle the mixture, adding an equal amount of spices to each bottle.

  2. Seal the bottles and store them in a cool, dry place for one year before using.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Walnut + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green walnut shells
Provide the main flavour and dark colour as they steep in salt.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the shells and preserves the mixture during the long standing period.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic note to the finished liquid.
Black pepper
Adds pungency and aroma to the finished liquid.
Long pepper
Adds a spicy, aromatic bite to the finished liquid.
Cloves
Adds a sweet, aromatic spice note to the finished liquid.

The step that matters

Draining the liquid after 6 days. Banking the mixture to one side lets the liquid separate cleanly from the solids. Pressing or disturbing the solids too early can cloud the liquor with pulp, while keeping the mixture stirred during the standing period helps the salt draw out liquid evenly.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, pepper, clove. 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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