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Walnut Catsup

A walnut-based condiment made by steeping walnut pulp in vinegar and seasoning with shallots, cloves, mace, pepper, cayenne, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Walnut Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnut pulp

  1. Remove the husks from the walnuts and reduce them to a pulp in a marble mortar.

  2. Add 2 gallons of vinegar to the walnut pulp and let it stand for 3 to 4 days.

Season and strain

  1. For each gallon of liquid, add ¼ lb minced shallots, ½ oz bruised cloves, ½ oz mace, ½ oz black pepper, 1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper, and ¼ lb coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and strain it through a flannel.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Walnuts
Provide the main body and deep, bitter-earthy flavour of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid and preservative, extracting flavour from the walnut pulp through soaking.
Shallots
Add a sharp, savoury onion-like aroma and depth to the liquid.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, warm pungency to balance the rich walnut flavour.

The step that matters

Standing the walnut pulp in vinegar. Letting the pulp steep for 3 to 4 days lets the vinegar draw out flavour and colour from the walnuts. Stopping early leaves the liquid weak and the walnut flavour underdeveloped.

Swap the mace

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

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

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