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Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based sauce made with spices, sugar, and vinegar, cooked slowly and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and mash the tomatoes through a colander.

  2. Add the ground mace, ground mustard, and celery seed tied in a bag.

Make the ketchup

  1. Cook slowly for 3 hours, stirring frequently.

  2. Add the sugar and vinegar, then boil for 1 hour longer.

  3. If desired, add more seasoning.

Bottle

  1. Fill bottles and seal while hot.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and flavour that the sauce reduces into ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for tang and helps keep the finished ketchup stable.
Celery seed
Adds a warm, savoury aroma characteristic of classic ketchup.
Ground mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that rounds out the flavour.
Ground mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent note that cuts through the sweetness.

The step that matters

Slow cooking with frequent stirring. Tomatoes and sugar can scorch on the bottom of the pot at low heat. Stirring often and keeping the heat gentle lets water evaporate slowly, so the sauce thickens and darkens evenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, 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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