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Sauce

Red Pepper Catsup

A sauce made from red bell peppers, spices, onions, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Red Pepper Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the vegetables

  1. In a porcelain-lined kettle, combine the red bell peppers, spices, and sliced onions.

  2. Cover with vinegar and bring to a boil until the peppers are soft.

  3. Remove from heat, cover, and let cool.

Strain and bottle

  1. Once cool, pour part of the mixture into a sieve and press through with a spoon until only skins and seeds remain.

  2. Discard the skins and seeds and repeat until all has been processed.

  3. Bottle the catsup and seal tightly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Red bell peppers
Provide the main body and sweet, mild flavor of the catsup once cooked and pressed.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften and break down during cooking.
Vinegar
Acts as the acidic liquid that softens the vegetables and gives the catsup its tang.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the catsup.
Cloves
Contribute strong, warm aromatic flavor to the catsup.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aromatic flavor to the catsup.

The step that matters

Pressing through the sieve. Pressing too hard or too little affects the texture; the cooked pulp must be pushed through so only skins and seeds remain, leaving a smooth sauce. Working in batches keeps the pressing efficient and thorough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mace, allspice, clove, 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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