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Double Mushroom Catsup

A fermented mushroom ketchup made with salt, catsup, pepper, mace, ginger, cayenne, eschalots, walnut catsup, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Double Mushroom Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Strew three ounces of salt over a gallon of fresh mushrooms.

  2. Pour a quart of ready-made catsup over them.

  3. Keep stirred occasionally for four days.

  4. Drain the liquid very dry from the mushrooms.

Make the ketchup

  1. Boil the mushrooms for fifteen minutes with an ounce of whole black pepper, a drachm of mace, an ounce of ginger, and three or four grains of cayenne.

  2. Take a pint and a half of mushroom catsup when it is first made, and ready-boiled.

  3. Simmer in it for five minutes an ounce of small eschalots nicely peeled.

  4. Add to these half a pint of walnut catsup, and a wineglassful of cayenne vinegar (or chili vinegar).

  5. Give the whole one boil.

Bottle

  1. Pour it out, and when cold, bottle it with the eschalots in it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

58Calories
3 gProtein
3 gFat
6 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Mushrooms1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Eliza Acton. 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.

  1. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + gingertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together867 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh mushrooms
Form the base of the ketchup, releasing their liquid and savoury flavour during salting and boiling.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Ready-made catsup
Adds tomato-based sweetness and acidity while the mushrooms steep over four days.
Walnut catsup
Adds a deep, rich flavour to the finished ketchup.
Cayenne vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and heat that brightens the ketchup.
Eschalots
Add a mild pungent aroma and savoury flavour as they simmer in the liquid.

The step that matters

Drain the mushrooms very dry. Mushrooms that still hold excess liquid dilute the reduced sauce and weaken its flavour. Removing the liquid concentrates the mushroom and catsup flavours before the boil.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Soybeanfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, ginger, 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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