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Rhubarb Ketchup

A sweet and tangy condiment made from rhubarb, sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Rhubarb Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup

  1. Combine rhubarb, brown sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and mace in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reaches your desired thickness.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the hot ketchup into Perfect Seal Jars and seal immediately.

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. Rhubarb + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Rhubarb + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 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

Rhubarb
Provides the bulk and tart flavour that forms the ketchup's body as it cooks down.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses depth, and helps thicken the ketchup as it reduces.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Boil until thick. Rhubarb releases a lot of water, and the ketchup thickens only as that water evaporates during boiling. Stopping too early leaves a thin sauce, while the sugar can scorch if the pot is left unattended at a hard boil. Stirring keeps the bottom from burning.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, vinegar, 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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