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Green Tomato Catsup

A fermented tomato condiment made with green tomatoes, onions, spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Green Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Layer the sliced green tomatoes and onions in a bowl, sprinkling salt between layers.

  2. Let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the mixture.

Cook and bottle

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the drained mixture with mustard seed, allspice, cloves, ground mustard, ground ginger, black pepper, celery seed, brown sugar, and enough vinegar to cover.

  2. Boil for 2 hours.

  3. Strain through a sieve and bottle for use.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the ketchup and its tart, fruity body as they cook down.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and body that softens into the sauce during long boiling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and onions during the 24-hour standing, concentrating their flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavour that deepens during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Draining after the 24-hour salting. Salt draws out a lot of liquid from the tomatoes and onions. Draining well before boiling keeps the ketchup thick rather than watery, and removes excess salt from the final sauce.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, pepper, celery. 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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