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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato sauce seasoned with pepper, celery seed, cloves, onions, salt, vinegar, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil and strain the tomatoes through a sieve.

  2. Add black pepper, celery seed, and ground cloves tied in a bag.

  3. Mix in the finely chopped onions, coarse sea salt, vinegar, and brown sugar. Stir well and let it simmer until thickened.

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

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavor, and liquid base of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften during simmering.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the ketchup.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and tomato acidity.

The step that matters

Simmer until thickened. Tomato liquid thickens slowly as water evaporates, so the ketchup needs enough time over low heat. Stopping early leaves it thin, while overcooking can scorch the sugars on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, celery, clove, vinegar, sugar. 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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