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Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made by cooking tomatoes with spices and onions, then canning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes.

  2. Remove the green parts and bad spots.

  3. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices.

  4. Cook the tomatoes briefly on the stove.

  5. Drain off the watery juice.

  6. Cook the tomatoes until soft.

  7. Pass the tomatoes through a colander, then through a sieve.

Make the ketchup

  1. Return the tomato puree to the stove.

  2. Boil until reduced by half.

  3. Add the spices and mix thoroughly.

  4. Remove half of the catsup.

  5. Add the chopped onions to the remaining catsup.

  6. Cook until the onions are soft.

  7. Can it in pint jars.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, sweetness and acidity of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savory depth and a soft texture to the finished sauce.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the sauce and draws out moisture during cooking.
Ground mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced by half. Tomato puree has a lot of water. Reducing it by evaporation concentrates the flavor and thickens the ketchup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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