Name: Gooseberry Catsup
Ingredients: ten pounds of large english gooseberries; seven pounds of coffee sugar; three pints of vinegar together; two tablespoonfuls of cinnamon; cinnamon; allspice; cloves

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Gooseberry Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Boil ten pounds of large English gooseberries, seven pounds of coffee sugar, and three pints of vinegar together for an hour and a half.
Add two tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, one of allspice and one of cloves.
Boil for half an hour longer.
Put in jars and seal.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

70Calories

0 gProtein

0 gFat

18 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Coffee	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.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together895 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Gooseberries: Provide the bulk of the fruit and body that the catsup cooks down into.
Coffee sugar: Adds sweetness and helps thicken the catsup as it cooks down.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the catsup its tang and helps preserve it.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the catsup.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove):

Allspicethe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, 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.