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Mushroom Catchup

A preserved mushroom condiment made by layering mushrooms with salt, mashing, straining, and boiling with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Take freshly gathered mushrooms, examine them to ensure they are the right sort.

  2. Pick them nicely, wipe them clean, but do not wash them.

  3. Spread a layer of mushrooms at the bottom of a deep earthen pan.

  4. Sprinkle them well with salt.

  5. Add another layer of mushrooms, then another layer of salt, alternating layers.

  6. Throw a folded cloth over the jar, and set it by the fire or in a very cool oven.

  7. Let it remain thus for twenty-four hours.

  8. Mash the mushrooms well with your hands.

  9. Squeeze and strain the mash through a bag.

Make the ketchup

  1. To every quart of strained liquor add an ounce and a half of whole black pepper, and boil it slowly in a covered vessel for half an hour.

  2. Add a quarter of an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of sliced ginger, a few cloves, and three or four blades of mace.

  3. Boil it with the spice fifteen minutes longer.

  4. Add cayenne and nutmeg to the spices if desired.

  5. Boil the catchup longer for better preservation.

Bottle and keep

  1. When done, take it off, and let it stand awhile to settle.

  2. Pour it carefully off from the sediment and put it into small bottles, filling them to the top.

  3. Secure the bottles well with corks dipped in melted rosin, and leather caps tied over them.

  4. Use small bottles because it spoils soon after opening.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

38Calories
1 gProtein
2 gFat
7 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
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
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 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms (in the method)
Provide the main body and flavour of the ketchup once salted and strained into liquor.
Salt (in the method)
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms, creating the liquor and preserving the mass during standing.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat and aroma to the strained liquor as it simmers.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the simmered liquor.
Ginger
Adds aromatic warmth and a gentle pungent note to the spiced liquor.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the spiced liquor.

The step that matters

Salting and standing the mushrooms. Enough salt must be spread between every layer so the mushrooms release their liquid and the mass does not spoil. Too little salt lets the mushrooms ferment or rot during the twenty-four hours of standing, and the liquor is then unsafe or unpleasant.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, ginger, pepper, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, ginger, pepper, clove, nutmeg. 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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