I used unripe black walnuts for this recipe, but any unripe walnut will do. Ideally they are young enough to jam a knife all the way through, but you can even use slightly older nuts where the inner shell of the nut itself is starting to form. Keep in mind this is not as thick as tomato ketchup. It's more like a Worcestershire sauce, but it tastes more like A1. Use this as a marinade or splash it on any sort of red meat -- beef, venison, duck, goose, hare, etc.
Recipe by Hank Shaw on June 15, 2015
Prep time: PT20M
Cook time: PT45M
Total time: PT65M
Rating
4.84 stars (6 reviews)
Keywords
walnuts
Ingredients
About 50 green walnuts
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 12- ounce bottle malt vinegar
3 to 4 cups cider vinegar
2 ounces of anchovies, (rinsed well)
1 large onion, (chopped)
1 cup red wine or Port
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup chopped or grated horseradish
A 1-inch piece of ginger, (unpeeled and sliced thin)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum ((optional))
Categories
Condiment
Sauce
Cuisine
British
Steps
Crush, chop, crack or grind your walnuts. Remember this is a messy job and the liquid will stain, so your method should reflect that. I wear gloves and a ratty long-sleeved shirt and chop my walnuts small with a stainless steel knife on a dark-stained cutting board, This minimizes the staining.
Put the walnuts in a large glass or other non-reactive container and cover with the two vinegars. I find it makes a better walnut ketchup with only malt vinegar, but as this can get expensive, you can make do with some malt vinegar balanced with some cider vinegar. Just barely cover the walnuts with the vinegar. Put the lid on the container and let this sit at room temperature for 8 days.
After 8 days, move the walnuts and vinegar into a large, non-reactive pot and add the remaining ingredients. Boil gently for 45 minutes, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve to separate the solids. As an extra step, you can wait until the sauce cools and then buzz the sauce in a blender with the xanthan gum; this will keep the very fine solids suspended in the ketchup and give you a sauce with more body.
Bottle the sauce and keep it in a cool, dark place indefinitely.
Reviews
Bill Sallak on 2022-07-11 (5 stars): I'm really excited to see how this turns out! I do have one question—after I chopped the green walnuts (larger ones in eighths, smaller ones in quarters) I put them in a half-gallon glass jar and it only took 24 oz. of vinegar to barely cover them. Should I add the remaining vinegar when I simmer, or should I reduce the rest of the ingredients by half and make a half batch, or should I proceed with the full recipe but with a much smaller amount if vinegar? Thanks!
Mike Neely on 2020-11-14 (5 stars): I made this recipe a few years ago and ended up with a lot of walnut ketchup. Which has been great, because it's delicious! It's definitely worth the wait as it mellows. It's been fun to taste the differences as we crack a new quart every once in a while since it mellows so much over time. Great on a variety of different meats!
John M Jones on 2018-12-01 (5 stars): Used some of the walnuts I brined for pickled walnuts.
Like you I combined some recipes and used available spices.
Which from the found recipes variety it looks like whatever you have in the pantry. It definitely needed some time on the shelf. After 5 months mine is more like worchestershire than A1. The pickled walnuts after 5 months are like solid chunks of strong worchestershire in a good way if used judiciously.
Will be making both of them again modifying the recipe in the years that my low limbed walnut tree bears nuts. Not planning on using the extension ladder for it since I think one year's batch will yield several years worth. Though my friends at a sportsmen's club will take any overflow.
Mary on 2018-01-07 (4 stars): Really good after waiting 3 months to try it. It was fun to make, too.
