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Walnut Catsup

A walnut-based condiment made by boiling walnuts in vinegar and seasoning with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Pierce the walnuts with a pin and mash them.

  2. Combine the mashed walnuts with 1 gallon of vinegar.

Reduce and season

  1. Boil the mixture down to 3 quarts and strain it.

  2. Add ½ ounce of ground allspice, ½ ounce of mace, ¼ ounce of cloves, and ½ teaspoon of black pepper for each quart.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes, skimming well.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the catsup and seal it while hot.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Walnut + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 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

Tender white walnuts
Provide the main flavour base and body of the ketchup once mashed and simmered.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid that extracts flavour from the walnuts and gives the ketchup its acidity.
Ground allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that season the ketchup.
Mace
Adds a delicate, aromatic spice flavour to the ketchup.
Cloves
Contribute strong aromatic warmth to the seasoning blend.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes, skimming well. Skimming removes foam and solids that rise during boiling, keeping the ketchup clear and free of off-flavours. The boil also concentrates flavour and helps the mixture keep once bottled.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, allspice, 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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