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Recipe for Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato sauce seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, red pepper, mustard, onions, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Recipe for Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the peeled tomatoes and coarse sea salt in a large pot.

  2. Add ground pepper, allspice, red pepper pods, mustard, and sliced onions.

  3. Pour in the vinegar and mix well.

  4. Simmer the mixture over low heat until thickened, stirring occasionally.

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. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Peeled tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide the body that thickens during simmering.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Sliced onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma as they soften into the sauce.
Mustard
Adds pungent flavor and emulsifying compounds that support a smooth, balanced sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer over low heat until thickened. Low heat lets water evaporate gradually while stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot. Too high a heat can burn the sugars and tomato solids, giving a bitter taste and uneven texture.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, mustard, onion, 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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