Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓
Tomato Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Scald the tomatoes.
Peel the tomatoes.
Core the tomatoes.
Mash the tomatoes as if preparing for stewing.
Make the ketchup
Season the tomatoes with cinnamon, cayenne pepper, cloves, allspice, mace, and finely chopped onions.
Add salt to taste.
Place everything in a porcelain-lined kettle.
Boil until the tomatoes are thoroughly cooked.
Rub the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds and spices.
Return the strained mixture to the kettle.
Boil until thick like cream.
Let it cool.
Bottle and store
Pour into clean bottles, filling each to within ½ inch of the cork.
Top each bottle with 1 teaspoon of salad oil.
Store the bottles in a cool, dry place, resting on their sides.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body, moisture and tomato flavour of the ketchup.
- Onions
- Add savoury depth and body as they soften during long cooking.
- Ground cinnamon
- Adds warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the spiced tomato flavour.
- Ground cloves
- Contribute strong aromatic warmth that defines the spiced character.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds gentle heat that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Boil until thick like cream. Tomatoes contain a lot of water, and reduction by boiling concentrates flavour and thickens the sauce. Stopping too early leaves a thin ketchup that may spoil sooner in the bottle.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cinnamon, pepper, clove, allspice, onion):
- Nutmegfits better
- Thymefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cinnamon, pepper, clove, allspice, onion. 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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