Name: Sweet Tomato Catsup
Ingredients: 18 pounds tomatoes, sieved; 8 cups sugar; 1 quart vinegar (more if desired); 3 tablespoons black pepper; 3 tablespoons coarse sea salt; 3 tablespoons ground ginger; 3 tablespoons ground cloves; 8 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sweet Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Sieve the tomatoes to remove skins and seeds.
In a large pot, combine the sieved tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, pepper, salt, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.
Cook the mixture over medium heat until it reaches the desired consistency.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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 body, acidity and flavour of the ketchup once sieved and cooked down.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and, as it thickens during cooking, helps give body and preservation.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Ground cinnamon: Adds warm aroma and spice flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking to the desired consistency. Ketchup thickens as water evaporates and sugar concentrates during simmering. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while cooking too long makes it overly thick and sticky. Checking texture regularly keeps the result right.

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Carrotfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, pepper, ginger, clove, cinnamon. 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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Sweet Tomato Catsup