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Sauce

Grape Catsup

A sweet and spicy grape condiment made by stewing grapes, adding sugar, vinegar, and spices, then boiling until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew the grapes over low heat until soft.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Add the sugar, vinegar, and spices.

  4. Boil until thickened.

  5. Bottle.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the main fruit body and natural pectin that helps the ketchup thicken.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps give the ketchup body and preservation.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma as a spice flavouring.
Cloves
Contributes strong, warm aroma as a spice flavouring.
Allspice
Contributes warm, peppery aroma that rounds out the spice blend.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened. Sugar and vinegar must be concentrated by boiling so the sauce thickens and becomes shelf-stable. Stopping too early leaves it thin and prone to spoiling, while over-boiling can scorch the sugars and make it too stiff.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, clove, allspice, pepper, 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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