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Grape Catsup

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Squeeze the grapes to extract juice.

  2. Combine ¾ pound of sugar with 1 pint of grape juice.

  3. Add salt, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to taste.

  4. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  5. For every 4 quarts, add 1 cup of vinegar just before finishing.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the ketchup as it cooks down.
Grape juice
Provides the main liquid and fruity flavour base for the ketchup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit solids concentrate and the sauce thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can make it too dense or cause scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, nutmeg, clove, 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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