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Wokcesteksiii Ke Catsup

A fermented vinegar-based ketchup with garlic, anchovies, spices, walnut catsup, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove 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 ↓

Wokcesteksiii Ke Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine vinegar, cayenne pepper, bruised garlic, mashed anchovies, whole cloves, and blade of mace in a container.

  2. Cover and let sit for 18 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Finish and age

  1. Add walnut catsup and made mustard to the strained mixture.

  2. Transfer to a stone jug and let sit for 2 weeks.

  3. Bottle and seal the catsup.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Acts as the main liquid and preservative, extracting flavour from the aromatics and giving the ketchup its sharp acidity.
Anchovies
Adds deep savoury umami that rounds out the sauce without tasting distinctly fishy.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and savoury depth that mellows during the long steep.
Walnut catsup
Provides concentrated walnut-based savour and body, deepening the sauce's overall flavour.
Cayenne pepper
Supplies heat and pungency that infuses into the vinegar during the steep.

The step that matters

Straining before adding the walnut catsup and mustard. Straining removes the solid aromatics so the liquid is clear and smooth. Adding the walnut catsup and mustard only after straining keeps the final texture even and prevents their solids from being lost or clouding the sauce.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, garlic, clove, walnut, mustard. 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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