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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes, onion, spices, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the tomatoes and onion, then slice them.

  2. Boil the sliced tomatoes and onion for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine colander or sieve back into the kettle.

Season and thicken

  1. Add curry powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and allspice.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Add mustard until the mixture reaches a thick consistency.

Jar

  1. When cool, transfer to small 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. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and tomato flavour of the ketchup.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and body as it softens during boiling and is strained out.
Curry powder
Contributes warm, earthy spice aroma to the sauce.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that builds as the sauce simmers.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps the sauce reach a thicker consistency.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduction evaporates water and concentrates flavour and body. Constant stirring prevents the thick, sugary-acidic mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, allspice, mustard. 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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