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Lemon Catchup

A pickled lemon condiment made with mustard seed, horseradish, spices, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lemon Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut nine large lemons into thin slices and remove the seeds.

  2. Pound two ounces of mustard seed, half an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves in a mortar.

  3. Slice two ounces of horseradish thinly.

Make the pickle

  1. Combine all the ingredients together.

  2. Sprinkle three ounces of fine salt over the mixture.

  3. Add a quart of the best vinegar.

  4. Boil the mixture for twenty minutes.

  5. While warm, transfer it into a jar and let it stand for three weeks, covered tightly.

  6. Stir the contents daily.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  2. Transfer the strained liquid into small bottles for use as a fish and sauce flavoring.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

43Calories
1 gProtein
2 gFat
8 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 10 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Seednot in our table0
Horseradishnot in our table0
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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide the main acidic, aromatic body of the pickle.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid base and preserving acid that extracts flavour from the spices.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that mellows during the long standing.
Horseradish
Contributes pungent heat that carries into the finished liquid.
Fine salt
Draws moisture from the lemons and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Boiling and then standing covered for three weeks. Boiling brings the vinegar and spices together and helps sterilise the mixture, while the long covered rest lets the flavours steep. Transferring it while warm and keeping the jar tightly covered limits contamination and evaporation.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, horseradish, pepper, nutmeg, clove, lemon, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, horseradish, pepper, nutmeg, clove, lemon, 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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