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Tomato Catsup

A tomato sauce made with tomatoes, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 the tomatoes

  1. Boil the ripe tomatoes and press them through a fine sieve.

Make the ketchup

  1. Return the strained tomatoes to the heat and add the salt, mace, black pepper, cayenne, cloves, ground mustard, and celery seed.

  2. Boil the mixture for at least 5 hours.

  3. Add 1 pint of strong vinegar, then bottle and seal the catsup.

  4. Store in a cool, dark place.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

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

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, flavour and thickening pulp of the sauce.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw out flavour during long simmering.
Ground mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for at least 5 hours. Long, steady boiling evaporates water and concentrates the tomato solids, which sets the thick texture and deepens flavour. Too short a boil leaves the sauce thin and watery.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

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