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To Make Mushroom Catsup

A preserved mushroom condiment made by crushing mushrooms, seasoning, simmering, and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make Mushroom Catsup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Crush the mushrooms with your hands and mix in a handful of coarse sea salt for every peck of mushrooms.

  2. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. Place the mushrooms in a stew pan and set in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 hours.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Season and reduce

  1. Add 1 ounce each of cloves, allspice, black pepper, and ginger, along with ½ pound of common salt to the liquid.

  2. Set the mixture on a low heat and boil until half the liquid evaporates.

Bottle

  1. Transfer to a clean pot and let it cool before bottling for use.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 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

Mushrooms
Provide the bulk of the liquid and the savory, umami flavor of the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and helps preserve the mixture.
Common salt
Seasons the liquid and adds to its preserving effect.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice notes that flavor the ketchup.

The step that matters

Boiling down the strained liquid. Reducing over low heat concentrates the flavor and thickens the liquid. Keeping the heat low avoids scorching and burnt flavors, and the mixture must be fully cooled before bottling so that it keeps well.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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