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Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made by boiling tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic, then simmering with spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the vegetables

  1. Boil the tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic for about 2 hours.

  2. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. Strain through a large sieve.

Reduce and finish

  1. Bring the strained mixture to a boil, then add the spices and salt.

  2. Boil slowly until thick.

  3. Just before removing from heat, add the sugar and vinegar.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide the base flavor and liquid to reduce.
Onions
Add sweetness and body as they soften during the long simmer.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps preserve the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until thick. Tomato sauce thickens only as water evaporates. Boiling too hard can scorch the sugars and solids on the bottom of the pan, leaving a burnt taste, so a gentle simmer with frequent stirring gives an even, thick result.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, clove, garlic, pepper, mustard, cinnamon, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, garlic, pepper, mustard, cinnamon, 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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