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English Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made with tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and asafoetida work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 80 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Boil the tomatoes gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Press through a sieve to remove seeds and skin.

  3. Return to the kettle and boil down to 1½ gallons.

Season and finish

  1. Add the vinegar and evaporate to 1¾ gallons.

  2. Stir in the sugar, salt, and spices until mixed.

  3. Mix asafoetida with 2 tablespoons warm water, then add to the kettle.

  4. Stir continually until the catsup reaches a boiling point.

  5. Remove from heat and add the alcohol.

  6. Bottle and seal while hot.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Ginger + asafoetidatop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together80 recipes

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

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,711 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + gingertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned 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

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the catsup and provide its body and flavor once reduced.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the catsup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and acidity of the tomatoes.
Sea salt
Seasons the catsup and helps draw out flavor during reduction.
Alcohol
Added at the end as a preservative and to carry the spice aroma.

The step that matters

Evaporating the tomatoes and vinegar to volume. Boiling down concentrates the tomato solids and sets the final thickness and flavor. Stopping too early leaves the catsup thin and watery, while over-reducing makes it too thick and intensely sour or sweet.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Cucumberabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, pepper, allspice, ginger, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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