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Salad

Walnut Catsup

A fermented walnut-based sauce seasoned with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the walnuts

  1. Sprinkle walnuts with salt and let them sit for six days, mashing them frequently.

  2. After six days, press the walnuts and let the liquid drain off.

Cook the liquid

  1. Simmer the liquid in a clean pot until scum rises.

  2. Add ginger, allspice, long pepper, and cloves to the liquid and boil slowly for 30 minutes.

Bottle and age

  1. Let it cool, then bottle, dividing the spices among the bottles.

  2. Cork the bottles tightly, seal with bottle cement, and store on their side in a cool, dry place for a year before using.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green walnuts
Form the base of the ketchup and release their juice and flavour when salted and mashed.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the walnuts through osmosis and helps preserve the mixture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the sauce.
Ginger
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the liquid.

The step that matters

Salting the walnuts. Salt must fully coat the walnuts so it draws out their liquid and creates an environment that inhibits spoilage microbes during the six-day rest.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, ginger, allspice, pepper, clove, vinegar, nutmeg. 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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