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English Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes, adding vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, and alcohol, then bottling while hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

English Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Boil the tomatoes gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Press through a sieve to remove seeds and skin.

  3. Return to the kettle and boil down to 1½ gallons.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add the vinegar and evaporate to 1¾ gallons.

  2. Stir in the sugar, salt, and spices until mixed.

  3. Mix asafoetida with 2 tablespoons warm water in a teacup, then add to the kettle.

  4. Stir continually until the catsup reaches a boiling point.

  5. Remove from heat and add the alcohol.

  6. Bottle and seal 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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavour and bulk of the ketchup once cooked down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, pungent heat and aroma to the spiced seasoning.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that round out the seasoning.
Alcohol
Added at the end to carry aroma from the seasoning and help keep the ketchup stable.

The step that matters

Stir continually until the catsup reaches a boiling point. Thick tomato mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of a pan, and scorched sugars give a burnt taste. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents sticking.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, allspice, mustard, ginger, 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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