Skip to main content
Drink

Plum Catsup

A plum-based condiment made by boiling plums with sugar and vinegar, then seasoning with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the plums

  1. Combine the plums, sugar, and vinegar in a preserving kettle.

  2. Boil the mixture until the plums are reduced to a pulp.

Strain and season

  1. Cool the mixture and press it through a sieve.

  2. Add ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice to taste.

Store

  1. Transfer the catsup into glasses for storage.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavor of the ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until the plums are fully reduced to a pulp. Cooking breaks down the fruit's cell walls and pectin, so the mixture thickens as water evaporates. If it is stopped early, the sieved sauce stays thin and can be lumpy.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Raspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesSugar VinegarSugar Vinegar20 recipesCinnamon TinctureCinnamon Tincture10 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipes