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Grape Catsup

A sweet and tangy grape condiment made by simmering grapes with sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove stems from grapes and rub them through a sieve.

Cook the ketchup

  1. Combine the sieved grapes, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in a pot.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 2½ hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the main pulp and fruit flavour that forms the body of the ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and thickens the mixture as it cooks down, helping it set.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the ketchup.
Allspice
Adds warm, peppery aroma that rounds out the spice blend.
Cloves
Adds strong, pungent aroma in small amounts to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Simmering for 2½ hours. Long simmering evaporates water so the pulp thickens into a ketchup. Sugar-rich mixtures can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so stirring occasionally keeps the heat even and prevents a burnt taste.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, clove. 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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