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Boiled Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes with spices, salt, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Boiled Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the tomatoes.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and boil for 1 hour.

  2. Add the celery seed and boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  3. Before removing from heat, stir in the vinegar.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  2. Bottle the hot catsup.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its main body, moisture and tomato flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and body as they break down during long simmering.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, fresh pepper flavor and some body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the vinegar just before removing from heat. Vinegar's sharp aroma and acidity are volatile and fade with prolonged boiling, so adding it late keeps the ketchup tangy rather than flat and cooked-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, clove, allspice, celery, sugar, 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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