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Sauce

Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made with tomatoes, vinegar, spices, and mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the spices: red pepper, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon, and mustard seed.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

Cook

  1. Boil slowly for 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main bulk and liquid that reduces into a thick, rich sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and gives the ketchup its tang.
Black pepper
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and background heat.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour notes that deepen the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 4 hours, stirring occasionally. A long, gentle simmer evaporates water and concentrates the tomato and spice flavours. Stirring keeps the sauce from sticking and scorching on the base of the pot, which would leave a burnt taste.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, mustard. 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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