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Walnut Catsup

A walnut-based condiment made by simmering walnut husk juice with spices and shallots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Walnut Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup

  1. Simmer the expressed juice of the walnut husks and skim it well.

  2. Add the shallots, cloves, mace, black pepper, and garlic.

  3. Let it simmer until the shallots sink.

  4. Pour the mixture into a pan to cool.

Bottle and seal

  1. Bottle the catsup and add some of the boiled spices to each bottle.

  2. Cork the bottles tightly and tie a bladder over each cork.

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. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Walnut + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Expressed juice of green walnut husks
Forms the liquid base and gives the ketchup its dark, distinctive flavour.
Shallots
Add savoury body and aromatic sweetness as they soften during simmering.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent aroma to the spice blend.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma that complements the other spices.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat and aroma to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Skimming the walnut juice. Simmering the raw juice releases foam and impurities that rise to the surface. Skimming them off early keeps the finished ketchup clear and free of bitter or off flavours.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, shallot, 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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