Name: Princb Op Wales's Catsup
Ingredients: ripe elderberries; vinegar; 2 ounces anchovies; 1 ounce shallots; 1 teaspoon cloves; 1 teaspoon mace; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon ginger

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Princb Op Wales's Catsup

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the elderberry liquid

Strip and fill a jar with ripe elderberries.
Add enough vinegar to fill the jar.
Place the jar in a cool oven and let it stand overnight.
Strain the liquid through a jelly bag.

Make and bottle the ketchup

For every pint of liquid, add 2 ounces of anchovies, 1 ounce of shallots, 1 teaspoon each of cloves, mace, nutmeg, and ginger.
Boil until the anchovies dissolve.
When cold, strain and bottle it.

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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,324 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

Ripe elderberries: Provide the main fruit flavour and colour of the ketchup.
Vinegar: Extracts the fruit and adds sharp acidity that keeps the ketchup stable.
Anchovies: Dissolve during boiling to add savoury depth and salty umami.
Shallots: Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aromatic background flavour.

The step that matters

Boil until the anchovies dissolve. Anchovies must fully break down into the liquid so the ketchup is smooth and evenly seasoned. Stopping early leaves whole pieces and uneven savoury flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, shallot, clove, nutmeg, ginger):

Cinnamonfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, shallot, clove, nutmeg, 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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Princb Op Wales's Catsup