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Oyster Catsup

A preserved oyster sauce made by simmering oysters with salt, mace, cayenne, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and brandy work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Oyster Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove all pieces of shell from the oysters.

  2. Place oysters in a mortar with salt, mace, and cayenne pepper; pound to a smooth paste.

Cook the ketchup

  1. Transfer the paste to a pot and add an equal amount of white wine.

  2. Heat slowly, then boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve and boil again for 5 minutes, skimming clear.

Finish and bottle

  1. Cool the catsup, then add brandy.

  2. Bottle, cork, and seal the catsup.

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. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Oyster + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together518 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,329 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main body and savoury, briny flavour of the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the oysters while they are pounded into a paste.
Powdered mace
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the ketchup.
Cayenne pepper
Adds sharp heat that balances the richness of the oysters.
White wine
Thins the paste and adds acidity to the cooking liquid.
Brandy
Adds alcohol-carried aroma and warmth, and helps preserve the ketchup.

The step that matters

Rubbing through the sieve and skimming. Pushing the mixture through a fine sieve removes shell fragments and solids, giving a smooth, clear ketchup. Boiling again and skimming lifts off foam and impurities, which helps the ketchup keep well.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, pepper, white wine, brandy):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, pepper, white wine, brandy. 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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