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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 ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 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.

Salt and rest

  1. Crush the mushrooms with your hands.

  2. Add a handful of salt for every peck of mushrooms.

  3. Let them stand overnight.

Bake and strain

  1. Place the mushrooms in stewpans.

  2. Set them in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Season and reduce

  1. For every gallon of liquid, add 1 ounce each of cloves, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, and ginger, along with ½ pound of common salt.

  2. Set the mixture on a slow fire.

  3. Boil until half the liquid is reduced.

  4. Transfer to a clean pot.

  5. Bottle when cold.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  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
Form the base and release the liquid that becomes the ketchup.
Common salt
Draws out moisture, seasons the liquid and helps preserve it.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the liquid.
Jamaica pepper
Adds aromatic, warm spice flavour to the liquid.
Black pepper
Adds pungent heat and sharpness to the finished sauce.
Ginger
Adds a fresh, aromatic, slightly pungent flavour.

The step that matters

Boil until half the liquid is reduced. Boiling concentrates the flavour and thickens the liquid as water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves a thin, weakly seasoned sauce that is more likely to spoil, so the reduction should be watched closely.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, clove, 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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