Why it works: Tomato and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Toxieata Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the tomatos and layer them in a jar, sprinkling salt between each layer until the jar is full.
Stir the mixture occasionally for three days and let it sit in a warm place.
After three days, let the jar sit undisturbed for twelve days until a thick scum forms on top.
Squeeze the juice from the tomatos and boil it with the same amount of spices used for mushroom catsup.
Once cooled, bottle the catsup and seal the corks.
After three months, strain and boil it again with fresh spices.
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.
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Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,719 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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