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Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made by blanching tomatoes, seasoning with spices, simmering, and adding vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Blanch the ripe tomatoes until the skin loosens, then remove the skin.

  2. Sprinkle the tomatoes with coarse sea salt and let them sit for a day.

  3. Strain the mixture carefully, removing all seeds.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add 3 ounces of whole cloves, 2 ounces of whole black peppercorns, 2 nutmegs, cayenne pepper, and additional salt to taste.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, then cool and let it settle.

  3. Stir in 1 pint of best cider vinegar.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle the catsup, cork tightly, and seal.

  2. Store in a cool place.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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, pulp and flavour of the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and seasons them before straining.
Whole cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the mixture during boiling.
Whole black peppercorns
Add sharp, aromatic pepper heat that infuses during boiling.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.

The step that matters

Strain out all the seeds. Seeds and fibrous pulp left behind make the ketchup gritty and bitter. Careful straining produces a smooth, uniform texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, nutmeg, pepper, cider, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, nutmeg, pepper, cider, 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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