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Ripe Tomato Catsup

A homemade tomato ketchup made by boiling peeled tomatoes and seasoning with vinegar, salt, spices, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Ripe Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the peeled tomatoes slowly until they can be rubbed through a sieve.

  2. Add the vinegar, salt, allspice, mustard, black pepper, cloves, mace, and red pepper.

  3. Mix well and cook until thickened.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Peeled tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce, providing body, moisture and sweet tomato flavour.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the cooked tomatoes.
Black pepper
Adds a sharp, aromatic warmth to the sauce.
Cloves
Contribute a strong, warm aroma that characterises the spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomato solids, which sets the sauce's consistency. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while cooking too long can darken and scorch it.

Swap the mace

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

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

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