Name: Old Fashioned Home Made Catsup
Ingredients: Tomatoes; Salt; Sugar; Vinegar; Spices; Benzoate of soda (for preservation)

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Old Fashioned Home Made Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the tomatoes and place them in a large pot.
Add salt, sugar, vinegar, and spices to the pot.
Cook the mixture over medium heat until it thickens, stirring occasionally.
Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Add benzoate of soda for preservation and mix well.
Pour the catsup into sterilized bottles and seal tightly.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).