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To Make Tomato Ketchup, and to Keep Tomatoes and Lima Beans Through the Winter

A preserved tomato ketchup made with tomatoes, lima beans, salt, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lima beans work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 131 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Make Tomato Ketchup, and to Keep Tomatoes and Lima Beans Through the Winter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Wash and chop the tomatoes.

  2. Combine tomatoes, Lima beans, salt, and spices in a pot.

  3. Cook over medium heat until thickened.

  4. Add vinegar and stir well.

Jar and store

  1. Pour into sterilized jars and seal tightly.

  2. Store in a cool, dark place for winter.

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. Tomato + lima beanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together131 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lima beans + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavour and liquid that reduces into the sauce.
Lima beans
Add starch that helps thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Water evaporates during simmering, so the sauce concentrates and sets. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while the starch and natural pectin in the tomatoes and beans need enough heat and time to thicken it.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Soybeanfits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, 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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