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Walnut Gravy

A walnut-based gravy made with vegetable stock, walnut ketchup, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,039 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Walnut Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make the vegetable stock as directed and strain it.

  2. Season the stock with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Add the walnut ketchup and stir well.

  4. For a richer color, add a few drops of caramel before serving.

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. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Walnut + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together596 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ketchup + peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Vegetable stock
Forms the liquid base that gives the gravy its body and carries its flavor.
Walnut ketchup
Adds concentrated, savory, slightly tangy flavor to the gravy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Peasfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ketchup, pepper. 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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