Skip to main content
Main

Green Tomato Catsup

A preserved green tomato ketchup made by layering tomatoes and onions with spices, sugar, and vinegar, then boiling and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Green Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the vegetables

  1. Layer the green tomatoes and onions in a container, sprinkling salt between each layer.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

Cook and strain

  1. Combine the tomatoes, onions, mustard seed, allspice, cloves, ground mustard, ground ginger, black pepper, celery seed, brown sugar, and enough vinegar to cover in a preserving pan.

  2. Boil the mixture for 2 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the catsup for use.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body and tart flavour of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften during the long boil.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the tomatoes and onions, helping to firm them before cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the ketchup and sharpens its flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the acidity and adds sweetness and depth to the sauce.
Mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that carries through the long cooking.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 2 hours. Long simmering reduces the liquid and softens the vegetables so the spices blend. Too little boiling leaves the ketchup thin and the flavours harsh.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, pepper, celery):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, pepper, celery. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes