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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes, seasoning with spices, and adding vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Use one peck of large, ripe tomatoes.

  2. Let them boil for a half hour.

  3. Strain the pulp through a sieve, put it back in the kettle, and add one ounce of salt, one teaspoon of powdered mace, half an ounce of cloves, one teaspoonful of black pepper, the same amount of cayenne pepper, and eight tablespoonfuls of ground mustard.

  4. Let it boil slowly for four hours.

Finish and bottle

  1. When quite cold, add a pint of good vinegar and bottle.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

25Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Tomatoes (in the method)
Form the bulk of the sauce, providing body and a fruity base that thickens as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness of the reduced tomato.
Mustard
Adds pungency and a sharp, tangy bite to the sauce.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and brings out the flavour of the tomatoes.
Cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes.
Cayenne
Adds heat that becomes more rounded during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Let it boil slowly for four hours. Long, gentle simmering evaporates water so the tomato thickens and its flavours concentrate. Boiling too hard can scorch the bottom of the kettle and burn the sugars, giving a bitter taste, so the heat needs to stay low and the pot should be stirred.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

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