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Anchovy Catchup

A sauce made from anchovies, wine, water, horseradish, mace, shalots, cloves, pepper, and lemon, boiled and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Red wine and white wine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Anchovy Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavourings

  1. Bone two dozen anchovies, then chop them.

  2. Add ten shalots (very small onions), cut finely, and a handful of scraped horseradish, with a quarter of an ounce of mace.

  3. Add a lemon, cut into slices, twelve cloves, and twelve pepper-corns.

  4. Mix together a pint of red wine, a quart of white wine, a pint of water, and half a pint of anchovy liquor.

Reduce and bottle

  1. Put the other ingredients into the liquid, and boil it slowly until reduced to a quart.

  2. Strain it, and when cold put it into small bottles, securing the corks with leather.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

248Calories
29 gProtein
10 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 8 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Anchovy100g210
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Horseradishnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Liquornot 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 Eliza Leslie. 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. Red wine + white winetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Horseradish + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Red wine + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Dissolve into the sauce to give a salty, savoury depth.
Red wine
Adds acidity and concentrated fruity flavour as it reduces.
White wine
Adds acidity and body, concentrating as the liquid reduces.
Shallots (in the method)
Provide a mild, sweet-sharp aromatic base that softens during simmering.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent aroma and heat that mellows in cooking.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until reduced to a quart. A slow simmer concentrates the wine and anchovy flavours evenly and gently. Boiling hard can scorch the liquid or over-reduce it, making the sauce harsh, salty and too thick before it reaches the set volume.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horseradish, red wine, white wine, anchovy, clove, pepper, corn):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against horseradish, red wine, white wine, anchovy, clove, pepper, corn. 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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