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Grape Catsup

A sweet grape-based condiment made with grape juice, vinegar, sugar, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,675 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine grape juice, vinegar, and sugar in a pot.

  2. Add ground cloves to taste.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

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. Grape + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Grape + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 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

Grape juice
Provides the main liquid and fruity flavor that forms the base of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps preserve the ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves and cooks down, contributes to the thick body of the ketchup.

The step that matters

Boil until it thickens. Boiling evaporates water so the mixture reduces and sets to a thick ketchup consistency. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while cooking too long can make it overly dense and sticky.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, vinegar, sugar. 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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