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Sauce

Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment seasoned with cloves, sea salt, mustard, pepper, vinegar, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

  1. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

  2. Let simmer for two to three hours.

  3. Pour the mixture into bottles or jars 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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the base of the sauce, supplying body, bulk and most of the sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the tomatoes and helps preserve the ketchup.
Mustard
Adds a pungent, sharp bite that rounds out the sauce's flavour.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, strong aroma and spiced depth.
Allspice
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice note that blends with the cloves and pepper.
Pepper
Adds mild heat and a peppery aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer for two to three hours. Long, gentle simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomatoes, thickening the sauce and deepening its flavour. Stopping too early leaves it thin and sharp, while the spices need that time to infuse.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, mustard, pepper, vinegar, 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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