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Walnut Catsup

A walnut-based condiment made by steeping walnuts, shallots, garlic, and vinegar, then simmering with anchovies, pepper, cloves, and mace.

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 Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a large mortar, beat the walnuts until thoroughly broken.

  2. Transfer the walnuts to a jar and add the shallots, garlic, vinegar, and salt.

  3. Let the mixture stand for two weeks, stirring twice a day.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain off the liquid and pour it into a saucepan with the anchovies, whole pepper, cloves, and mace.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam.

  3. Strain again and, when cool, pour into small bottles, leaving sediment behind.

  4. Cork the bottles tightly and store in a dry place.

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. Pepper + clovetop 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. Mace + clovetop 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

Walnuts
Provide the main body of flavour and the dark colour of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and extracts flavour from the solids over two weeks.
Anchovies
Add a deep savoury, salty note that rounds out the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute sharp, aromatic onion flavour to the infused liquid.
Sea salt
Seasons the mixture and helps draw flavour out of the walnuts and shallots.

The step that matters

Straining after the two-week stand. Sediment left in the liquid can cloud the sauce and encourage spoilage, so the liquid should be strained carefully and the sediment left behind before bottling.

Swap the mace

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

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

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