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JValnut Ketchup

A walnut-based condiment made by infusing walnuts with ale or vinegar, garlic, anchovies, wine, and spices, then reducing and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

JValnut Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the walnuts

  1. Place walnuts in jars and cover with cold strong ale or vinegar.

  2. Seal tightly and let sit for a year.

  3. Remove walnuts.

Make the ketchup

  1. To every gallon of liquid, add garlic, anchovies, red wine, and spices.

  2. Boil the mixture until reduced by half.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Bottle for use.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 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

Walnuts
Provide the base flavour and rich body as they steep in the liquid.
Anchovies
Add deep savoury, umami flavour that rounds out the sauce.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and sharp savoury bite.
Red wine
Adds acidity and fruity depth to the liquid.
Cold strong ale or vinegar
Acts as the steeping liquid that extracts flavour from the walnuts and preserves the mixture.

The step that matters

Boiling until reduced by half. Boiling concentrates the liquid and drives off water, which thickens the flavour and helps preserve the ketchup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and more likely to spoil.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, vinegar, garlic, red wine, clove, pepper, ginger. 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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