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Walnut Ketchup

A fermented condiment made from green walnuts, vinegar, anchovies, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the husks from the green walnuts and chop them finely.

  2. Combine the chopped walnuts with vinegar, salt, anchovies, shallots, and horseradish in a large jar.

  3. Add mace, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and pepper to the mixture.

  4. Pour in the port and stir well.

Steep

  1. Seal the jar and let it sit in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks, shaking occasionally.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 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 walnuts
Provide the bulk of the flavour and a dark, bitter character as they steep.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving base and extracts flavour from the walnuts and spices.
Anchovies
Dissolve during steeping to add savoury depth.
Shallots
Add a sharp, aromatic onion note that mellows over time.
Salt
Draws out liquid and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Sealing and steeping the jar. The mixture must sit undisturbed in a cool, dark place for the full steeping time. Short steeping leaves the flavours sharp and unblended, and warmth or light can speed spoilage and dull the colour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, vinegar, shallot, horseradish, nutmeg, ginger, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, shallot, horseradish, nutmeg, ginger, 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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