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Tomato Catsup

A sauce made from boiled tomatoes, spices, and mustard, strained and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

  1. Combine tomatoes, salt, black pepper, allspice, red pepper, and mustard in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve or coarse cloth.

  4. Bottle the catsup for best results.

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

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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

Skinned tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and sweet-tart base of the ketchup.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw out flavour during the long simmer.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, woody heat that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Red pepper
Adds pungent heat and a background warmth to the sauce.
Mustard
Contributes tang and sharpness that rounds out the tomato flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 1 hour. Long boiling evaporates water and concentrates the tomatoes into a thick, rich sauce. Stopping early leaves it thin and watery, and scorching on the bottom of the pot can occur if it is not stirred.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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