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To Inciks Mushroom-Catchup

A fermented mushroom sauce made by boiling mushrooms with spices and preserving in bottles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove 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 Inciks Mushroom-Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the mushrooms

  1. Break mushrooms into small pieces.

  2. Rub coarse sea salt among them and let stand for 3-4 days in a cool place.

  3. Put mushrooms in a pan and bring to a boil.

  4. Squeeze mushrooms very dry.

  5. Let the liquid settle.

  6. Clear off the liquid.

Spice and simmer

  1. Put the liquid in a stew pan with ginger, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, and garlic.

  2. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle it in dry quart bottles.

  2. Cork the bottles.

  3. Store in a cool, dry place.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Large mushrooms
Provide the main liquid and savory umami flavor once salted and drawn down.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the mushrooms and preserves them against spoilage during standing.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savory depth to the finished ketchup.
Peppercorns
Contribute sharp, aromatic heat that builds flavor during the gentle simmer.

The step that matters

Salting and standing the mushrooms. Salt must be worked evenly through the mushrooms and they must stand long enough for water to be drawn out. Too little salt or time risks spoilage, since the salt is what keeps the mushrooms safe while they release their liquid.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, ginger, clove. 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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