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Cucumber Catsup

A fermented cucumber-based condiment made with onions, salt, horseradish, lemon peel, pepper, mace, and preserved with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Combine cucumbers and onions in a bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with salt.

  3. Let sit for 1.5 days, stirring occasionally.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Season and cook

  1. For each quart of liquid, add horseradish, lemon peel, black pepper, and bruised mace.

  2. Boil in a covered pot for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain again.

Bottle

  1. Once cooled, bottle the catsup.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of brandy per pint to preserve it.

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. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up the bulk of the liquid that becomes the ketchup.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and onions, concentrating their flavour over the resting period.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that gives the ketchup its bite.
Black pepper
Adds mild warmth and a spiced background note.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Brandy (in the method)
Acts as an alcohol preservative that helps keep the bottled ketchup from spoiling.

The step that matters

Letting the cucumbers sit with salt. Salt pulls water out of the cucumbers and onions by osmosis. Resting for the full time lets enough liquid drain out to make a concentrated base; cutting it short leaves a thin, watery ketchup that is more likely to spoil.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, horseradish, lemon, pepper):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, horseradish, lemon, pepper. 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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