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Compound, or Cook's Catsup

A homemade catsup made by simmering mushroom catsup with shallots or onions, adding walnut catsup and cayenne vinegar, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Compound, or Cook's Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer and combine

  1. Simmer the mushroom catsup with the shallots or onions for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the walnut catsup and cayenne vinegar.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Cool and bottle

  1. Pour it out and let it cool.

  2. Bottle the catsup with the shallots or onions.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mushroom + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + vinegartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushroom catsup
Forms the savory base of the sauce, providing deep, earthy umami flavor.
Walnut catsup
Adds a richer, more concentrated savory flavor to the mixture.
Cayenne vinegar or chili vinegar
Supplies sharp acidity and heat that brighten and balance the savory base.
Shallots or onions
Release mild sweetness and aroma as they simmer in the catsup.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, shallot, 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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