Skip to main content
Main

Old English Recipe for Mushroom Catsup

A preserved sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, vinegar, spices, and sugar, boiled and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and allspice 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 ↓

Old English Recipe for Mushroom Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the mushrooms

  1. Lay two quarts mushrooms and one-quarter pound salt in an earthenware pan in alternating layers of mushrooms and salt.

  2. Let them lay six hours then break into bits.

  3. Set in a cool place for three days, stirring thoroughly every morning.

Spice and cook

  1. Measure the juice when you have strained it and to every quart allow half an ounce of allspice, the same quantity of ginger, half a teaspoon of powdered mace, and a teaspoon of cayenne.

  2. Put into a stone jar and cover closely.

  3. Set in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire and boil five hours hard.

  4. Take it off and empty into a porcelain kettle and boil slowly half an hour longer.

Settle and bottle

  1. Let it stand all night in a cool place until settled and clear.

  2. Pour off carefully from the sediment and bottle, filling the bottle to the mouth.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

102Calories
4 gProtein
1 gFat
23 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 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

Mushrooms
Main body of the ketchup, releasing juice that becomes the sauce base.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and helps preserve the liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the sauce.
Ginger
Adds aromatic, gently pungent flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boiling the strained juice for five hours. Long, hard boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates flavour while driving off water, so the ketchup thickens and keeps. Too little boiling leaves it thin and more likely to spoil.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, tomato, ginger, vinegar, allspice, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, tomato, ginger, vinegar, allspice, sugar. 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.

More mushroom ketchup recipes

Sauce 4 See all 229 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipes