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Pepper Catsup

A spicy pepper condiment made by boiling peppers with vinegar, sugar, spices, onions, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Pepper Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the peppers

  1. Remove seeds from the peppers.

  2. Combine peppers and 1 pint of vinegar in a pot and boil until the pulp can be mashed through a sieve.

Season and finish

  1. Add the second pint of vinegar, sugar, cloves, mace, allspice, onions, and salt.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reaches the desired consistency.

  3. Strain through a sieve again, then bottle and seal.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Red peppers
Provide the main bulk and pulp that forms the body of the catsup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness and helps preserve the finished catsup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil until the pulp can be mashed through a sieve. Peppers must be cooked until soft so the pulp separates easily when pressed. Undercooked peppers stay fibrous and strain poorly, leaving a coarse texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, sugar, clove, mace, allspice. 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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