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Sauce

Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes, adding sugar, vinegar, salt, and spices, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Boil the tomatoes and rub them through a sieve.

  2. Cook the strained tomatoes down until thick.

Season and cook

  1. Add the brown sugar and mix well.

  2. Stir in the cider vinegar, salt, and spices tied in a bag.

  3. Boil the mixture thoroughly.

Bottle

  1. Cork the catsup in airtight containers.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavor, and bulk of the ketchup once cooked down.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.

The step that matters

Cook the strained tomatoes down until thick. Tomatoes hold a lot of water, and cooking them slowly lets moisture evaporate so the sauce thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cider, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider, vinegar, pepper. 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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