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Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made with ginger, cloves, cinnamon, red pepper, salt, mustard, vinegar, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Peel and strain the tomatoes.

  2. Add ginger, cloves, cinnamon, red pepper, salt, mustard, vinegar, and onions.

  3. Simmer slowly for 2 to 3 hours.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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 main body and moisture of the ketchup, and provide its base flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives a sharp tang and helps keep the finished sauce stable.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma to the sauce as they cook down.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the spiced flavor.
Cloves
Add a strong, pungent aroma that gives the sauce its spiced character.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for 2 to 3 hours. Long, gentle simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomato, so the sauce thickens and the spices blend. Heating too hard can scorch the bottom of the pan and leave a burnt taste, so keep the heat low and stir regularly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, ginger, clove, cinnamon, pepper, 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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