Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Mushroom Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mushrooms
Choose full-grown, fresh mushrooms and layer them in a deep pan, sprinkling salt between layers.
Let them sit for a few hours, then break them up by hand.
Place the mixture in a cool place for three days, stirring and mashing occasionally to extract juice.
Make the ketchup
Measure the liquor without straining and add the spices according to the proportions above.
Transfer everything to a stone jar and cover tightly.
Place the jar in a saucepan of boiling water.
Boil for three hours.
Pour the contents into a clean saucepan.
Simmer gently for half an hour.
Pour into a jug and let it cool overnight.
Strain and bottle
The next day, pour off into another jug.
Strain into clean, dry bottles without squeezing the mushrooms.
Add a few drops of brandy to each pint of catsup.
Do not shake the contents.
Leave sediment behind in the jug.
Cork well and seal to exclude air.
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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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mushrooms
- Main body of the ketchup, releasing juice that becomes the sauce base.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws juice out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture against spoilage.
- Mushroom liquor
- Adds concentrated mushroom flavor and liquid to the finished ketchup.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds heat that gives the ketchup its sharp, spicy character.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.
- Allspice
- Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that round out the flavor.
The step that matters
Straining without squeezing. Squeezing the mushrooms pushes out solids and cloudy material, which can make the ketchup murky and more likely to spoil. Letting juice drain naturally keeps the sauce clear and stable, and leaving sediment in the jug keeps the bottles clean.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, pepper, allspice, ginger, brandy):
- Clovefits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, allspice, ginger, brandy. 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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