Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes with vinegar, salt, spices, mustard, onions, brown sugar, and peach leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the tomatoes, vinegar, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cloves, mustard, onions, brown sugar, and peach leaves for three hours, stirring to prevent burning.

  2. When cool, strain through a fine sieve.

  3. Bottle and seal the catsup.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + peachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the ketchup, providing body, moisture and the base flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the finished sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, balancing the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Onions
Contribute savory aromatic flavor and body to the sauce as they cook down.

The step that matters

Stirring during the three-hour boil. The sauce is thick and sugar-rich, so it can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Frequent stirring prevents burning and keeps the flavor clean.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper, clove, mustard, onion, sugar. 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.

More tomato ketchup recipes

Green 26 See all 523 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes