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Mussels, Ketchup of

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mussels, Ketchup of

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Clean the mussels by washing and brushing them, then rinse in a colander until the water runs clear.

  2. Place the mussels in a large iron saucepan with the water clinging to the shells.

  3. Cover the saucepan and shake it while heating until the mussels open.

  4. Transfer the opened mussels to a clean earthen pan, remove the gills, weed, crab, and black parts.

  5. Pound the mussels in a mortar, then boil with the wine or cider and mussel juice.

  6. Add cayenne and mace, boil and skim until ready.

  7. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, bottle when cold, and seal the bottles.

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. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

  3. Wine + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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