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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato condiment made by cooking tomatoes with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt. Let them stand overnight.

  2. Pour off the juice and boil the tomatoes.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Season and finish

  1. Add cloves, black pepper, nutmegs, allspice, cinnamon, and mustard to the strained tomatoes.

  2. Boil the mixture for some time after adding the spices.

  3. Finally, stir in the vinegar.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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
Provide the main body, moisture and tomato flavor of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat to the sauce.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Cinnamon
Adds sweet, woody aroma and warmth.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture after adding the spices. Simmering for a long period lets the spices release their flavor into the tomato and thickens the sauce. Stopping early leaves the spices raw-tasting and the texture thin.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, mustard, 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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