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Walnut Ketchup

A fermented walnut ketchup made with shallots, garlic, anchovies, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the walnuts

  1. Bruise the walnuts thoroughly in a mortar.

  2. Combine the bruised walnuts, sliced shallots, garlic, vinegar, and salt in a pan.

  3. Let the mixture stand for two weeks, stirring two to three times a day.

Strain and boil

  1. After two weeks, strain the liquid into an enamelled stewpan.

  2. Add the anchovies, whole pepper, cloves, and other ingredients to the stewpan.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes, skimming well.

  4. Strain again and bottle when cold.

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

Green walnuts
Provide the bitter, astringent base flavour that defines the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the walnuts and shallots and preserves the mixture during the long steep.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid medium and preservative, extracting flavour and adding sharp acidity.
Anchovies
Add savoury depth, adding umami to the finished sauce.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aromatic onion-like flavour to the steeping liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming during the boil. The 30-minute boil concentrates the liquid and brings denatured proteins and impurities to the surface as foam. Skimming them off keeps the ketchup clear and prevents off flavours, so it should not be rushed.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, shallot, clove, garlic, vinegar, 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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