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Sauce

Grape Catsup

A sweet and tangy grape-based sauce made with grapes, sugar, vinegar, peppers, cloves, cinnamon, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the grapes

  1. Wash and stem the grapes, then crush them.

Cook the ketchup

  1. Combine the crushed grapes with brown sugar, vinegar, chopped green peppers, cloves, cinnamon, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Simmer the mixture over low heat for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to remove solids.

  2. Bottle the catsup and seal it tightly.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the main fruit body, sweetness and acidity that form the ketchup's base.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as it simmers and reduces.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Green peppers
Contribute vegetal bitterness and body to the sauce's flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering with occasional stirring. Simmering over low heat lets water evaporate slowly so the mixture thickens, while stirring prevents sugars from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Grapethe original

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