Why it works: Mustard and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Lemon Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and simmer
Slice the lemons.
Add the other ingredients: one pound and a quarter of salt, quarter of a pound of ground mustard, one ounce each of mace, nutmeg, cayenne, allspice, one gallon of cider vinegar, eight or nine garlic cloves, and fifteen large lemons.
Let simmer from twenty to thirty minutes.
Steep and store
Place in a covered jar.
Stir every day for seven or eight weeks.
Strain and bottle
Strain, then bottle, cork and seal.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Mustard | 1 tsp (5g) yellow | 3 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
| Cider | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,053 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
-
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,829 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemons (in the method)
- Provide acidity and bright citrus flavour that defines the ketchup.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds sharp acidity and helps preserve the sauce during long storage.
- Garlic
- Contributes savoury pungency and aroma to the sauce.
- Ground mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent heat and depth of flavour.
- Mace
- Adds warm, aromatic spice notes.
The step that matters
Stir every day for seven or eight weeks. Regular stirring keeps the solids and liquid evenly mixed during the long steeping, so flavours blend uniformly rather than settling unevenly in the jar.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, mustard, garlic, clove):
- Allspicefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, mustard, garlic, 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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