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Seven-years Ketchup

A fermented ketchup made by boiling beer, wine, anchovies, shallots, spices, and ginger, then aging and filtering.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Seven-years Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the strong beer, red wine, anchovies, shallots, mace, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger in a pot.

  2. Boil over moderate heat until one-third of the liquid evaporates.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

Age and strain

  1. Transfer it to a large jar and cover it.

  2. Let it sit for one to two weeks until the sediment settles and the liquid is clear.

  3. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

  4. Taste and add any essence of spice, oil, or vinegar to improve the flavor.

  5. If the liquid is not clear, bring it to a boil again.

  6. Once cooled, bottle it in small bottles to minimize air exposure.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 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

Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid to add savory depth, umami, and a background richness.
Strong beer
Forms the liquid base, adding bitterness and malty depth as it reduces.
Red wine
Adds acidity and body to the liquid base as it reduces.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aromatic savoriness as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture sit until clear. Sediment must settle fully during the one to two week rest, or the finished ketchup stays cloudy and gritty. Straining too early or skipping the rest leaves solids suspended in the liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, red wine, shallot, nutmeg, clove, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, red wine, shallot, nutmeg, clove, ginger. 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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