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Sauce

Chili Catsup

A tomato-based sauce with peppers, onions, vinegar, and spices, simmered for hours and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Chili Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and chop the tomatoes and onions finely.

  2. Chop the green peppers and add them to the mixture.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the tomatoes, onions, green peppers, vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and then reduce to a simmer.

  3. Let it cook slowly for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Bottle

  1. Bottle and seal the chili 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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 main body, moisture and sweet-tart base of the ketchup.
Green peppers
Add vegetal bite and fresh flavor that cooking mellows during the long simmer.
White onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma as they soften into the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmer. Simmering slowly for 3 hours with occasional stirring thickens the sauce by evaporation and prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot. Too much heat can burn the sugars and tomato solids, so keep it at a low, steady simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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