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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato condiment made by boiling tomatoes with salt, spices, sugar, vinegar, and garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to remove the skins.

  2. Place the skinned tomatoes in a kettle with the vinegar and boil for 2 hours.

Strain and bottle

  1. Pass the mixture through a colander.

  2. Add the celery seed and mix well.

  3. Bottle the catsup while hot.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Supply the bulk, body and main tomato flavor of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and saltiness.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and body as they cook down with the tomatoes.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours. The long simmer evaporates water and softens the tomatoes and onions, thickening the sauce and concentrating its flavor. Stopping early leaves it thin and raw-tasting.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, allspice, onion, sugar, garlic, 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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