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Cueeant Catsup

A sweet and spicy currant ketchup made with currant juice, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cueeant Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine currant juice, sugar, and vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Add cinnamon, cloves, pepper, allspice, and nutmeg.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 20 minutes.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 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

Currant juice
Forms the fruity base and supplies the tart flavor of the ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the sauce thicken as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and sweet spice notes.
Cloves
Adds a strong, warm aroma that deepens the spiced flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling and cooking for 20 minutes. Once the mixture boils, sugar-rich liquids can scorch on the bottom of the pot and stick. Stirring keeps heat even, and the cooking time controls how much the sauce reduces and thickens.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

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