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 ↓
Tomato Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Cut up the ripe tomatoes and boil until soft.
Strain the mixture and return it to the pot.
Boil the juice down by half.
For every 3.5 gallons of juice, add the salt, black pepper, allspice, mustard, mace, cloves, ginger, and chopped red pepper.
Boil hard for one hour.
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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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the ketchup.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the sauce and helps preserve it.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp, pungent heat to the spice blend.
- Mustard
- Adds sharpness and a tangy background note.
- Red pepper pods
- Add heat and a sharper, fresher pepper flavour.
The step that matters
Boil the juice down by half. Evaporating water concentrates the tomato solids and sugars and thickens the sauce. Stopping early leaves it thin and watery, so judge the reduction carefully before adding the spices.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, allspice, mustard, clove, ginger):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, allspice, mustard, clove, 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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