Why it works: Horseradish and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Windermere Ketchup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mushrooms
Gather the mushrooms before they are discolored by the sun.
Wipe the mushrooms with a clean cloth.
Break the mushrooms into an earthen pan.
Layer the mushrooms with a handful of coarse sea salt for every three handfuls of mushrooms.
Stir the mixture well with a stick or wooden spoon three to four times a day until the mushrooms dissolve.
Transfer the mixture to a boiler.
Simmer the mixture over low heat until it becomes liquid.
Strain the hot liquid through a fine sieve.
Flavour and bottle
Boil the strained liquid gently with allspice, peppercorns, horseradish, shallots, and bay leaves.
Remove the dark scum.
Strain the liquid into a large bottle or jar.
Once cold, cork the bottle.
Tie a bladder over the cork.
Reboil and bottle again
After three months, boil the liquid again with peppercorns, fresh allspice, horseradish, shallots, and bay leaves.
Let it simmer for half an hour after boiling.
Strain into small bottles.
Once cold, cork the bottles.
Tie a bladder over the corks.
Cover the bottles with sealing wax.
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.
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Horseradish + shallottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together376 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together654 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Allspice + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together386 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Mushroom + allspicetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together717 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Largest mushrooms with broad flaps and red gills
- Break down into liquid to form the ketchup's main body and savoury flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture as it breaks down.
- Horseradish
- Adds a sharp, pungent aroma that gives the liquid its bite.
- Shallots
- Contribute aromatic savoury depth to the simmered liquid.
- Allspice
- Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the boiled liquid.
The step that matters
Remove the dark scum. Scum rising during the gentle boil carries impurities and off-flavours; skimming it keeps the liquid clear and tasting clean before bottling and aging.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, horseradish, shallot):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, horseradish, shallot. 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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