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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato condiment seasoned with spices and salt.

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

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let the tomatoes sit for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the tomatoes before cooking.

Cook

  1. Place allspice, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, mace, and ginger root in a bag.

  2. Boil the bag with the tomatoes.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk, moisture and acidity that form the body of the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the sliced tomatoes, concentrating their flavour before cooking.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the cooking liquid.
Cloves
Contribute strong, aromatic warmth to the spiced flavour.
Cinnamon
Adds sweet, woody aroma to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes before cooking. Salted tomatoes release a lot of liquid. Draining removes excess water so the ketchup thickens to a spreadable consistency rather than staying thin and watery.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, clove, cinnamon, pepper, mace, ginger):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, cinnamon, pepper, mace, 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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