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Sauce

Tomato Catsup

A homemade tomato catsup made with tomato pulp, spices, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the strained tomato pulp, salt, black pepper, allspice, and red peppers in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  3. Add a small amount of vinegar and sugar to taste.

  4. Include one onion while cooking for added flavor.

  5. Place the ground spices in muslin bags to prevent darkening the catsup.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Strained tomato pulp
Forms the body of the ketchup and provides most of its tomato flavor.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw out flavor from the tomato.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, warm seasoning that balances the sweetness and acidity.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.
Red peppers
Adds heat and a pungent, sharp background flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened, then add vinegar and sugar to taste. Boiling reduces water so the sauce thickens and its flavor concentrates. Adding vinegar and sugar at the end lets you adjust acidity and sweetness after the tomato has concentrated, since both intensify as the sauce reduces.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, allspice, vinegar, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, allspice, 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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