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Mushroom Ketchup

A preserved mushroom condiment seasoned with salt, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Choose fresh, full-grown mushrooms and layer them in a deep pan, sprinkling salt between layers.

  2. Let them sit for a few hours, then break them up by hand and place in a cool spot for 3 days, stirring occasionally.

  3. Measure the liquid without straining and add the spices according to the quantity of liquid.

Cook and bottle

  1. Transfer everything to a stone jar, cover tightly, and place in a saucepan of boiling water for 3 hours.

  2. Pour the contents into a clean saucepan and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Let it cool overnight, then pour off into another jug, straining into clean, dry bottles without squeezing the mushrooms.

  4. Add a few drops of brandy to each pint, cork well, and seal to exclude air.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Main body of the ketchup; salt draws out their liquid, which becomes the sauce.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and helps preserve the liquid.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and sharpness that carries the savoury flavour of the mushrooms.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic depth to the sauce.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic note that rounds out the spices.

The step that matters

Keeping the jar sealed in the hot water bath. The cover must be tight so steam and moisture stay in and the mixture cooks evenly and gently. A loose lid lets the liquid reduce unevenly and can let air in, which spoils the ketchup.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, pepper, allspice, ginger, brandy):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, allspice, ginger, brandy. 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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