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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made with tomatoes, spices, mustard, and vinegar, boiled and strained, then bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Make a small incision in each tomato and place them in an enamelled saucepan.

  2. Boil the tomatoes until perfectly soft and the pulp is dissolved.

  3. Work the mixture through a colander and then through a fine sieve.

Cook the ketchup

  1. Add the remaining ingredients (with the celery seed in the muslin bag) to the saucepan.

  2. Boil for six hours, stirring occasionally for the first five hours.

  3. Stir continuously during the last hour.

Rest and bottle

  1. Pour the mixture into a stone jar and let it stand in a cool place for 12 to 14 hours.

  2. Once cool, add the pint of strong vinegar, remove the celery seed, and bottle the catsup.

  3. Cork and seal the bottles, keeping them out of direct light.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, pulp and flavour of the ketchup as they soften and reduce.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity for tang and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Celery seed
Contributes a savoury, aromatic flavour, steeped in the muslin bag so it can be removed.

The step that matters

Stirring the long simmer. Tomato sugars and pulp scorch easily on the base of the pan as the mixture thickens. Frequent stirring, and constant stirring in the final hour, prevents burning and sticking and gives an even, smooth texture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, clove, celery, mustard, 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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