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Sauce

Green Tomato Catsup

A green tomato ketchup made with tomatoes, mustard, spices, onions, sugar, vinegar, and optional turmeric and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Green Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Mix well and boil until the mixture turns a light color.

  3. Add turmeric and horseradish to taste.

  4. Use a tin vessel if possible for boiling.

  5. Pour the hot mixture into jars and seal while hot.

  6. Pre-warm jars with hot water to prevent bursting.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the ketchup and provide its body and base flavour.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and body as they soften during boiling.
White mustard seed
Contributes pungency and a sharp, earthy flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture turns a light color. Boiling reduces water and softens the solids, thickening the sauce. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while boiling too long can scorch the sugars and make it dark and bitter.

Swap the onion

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

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

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