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Cecelia Bart a

A homemade tomato ketchup made with tomatoes, onions, peppers, spices, sugar, salt, vinegar, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Cecelia Bart a

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup

  1. Boil together until soft one box tomatoes, four large onions, one and one-half dozen small hot red peppers, then strain through sieve.

  2. Put to boil with one dozen sprigs parsley, two bay leaves, one tablespoon whole celery seed, one-half teaspoon grated garlic tied up in a bag, one tablespoon each of ground black pepper, cloves, one level teaspoon mace, four tablespoons salt, and three cups sugar.

  3. Boil five hours, stirring well.

  4. Remove spice bag.

  5. Add three-fourths cup vinegar and boil about an hour longer.

Seal

  1. Seal hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

150Calories
3 gProtein
1 gFat
35 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 13 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its body and base flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity, which sharpens flavour and helps preserve the finished sauce.
Onions
Add savoury depth and body as they soften into the sauce.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and draws out flavour from the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Long simmer with stirring. Five hours of boiling reduces the water and thickens the sauce. Stirring well prevents the sugar and tomato solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, sugar, vinegar, tomato, parsley, garlic):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, sugar, vinegar, tomato, parsley, garlic. 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 ketchup recipes

Tomato 523Mushroom 229Walnut 161Grape 103Gooseberry 65Cucumber 48 See all 30 →

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