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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made by cooking tomatoes, peppers, onions, salt, vinegar, and spices for many hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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

  1. Wash and drain 2 baskets of ripe tomatoes, cutting out stems and any imperfect spots.

  2. Place the tomatoes in a kettle, squeezing each to break the skin.

  3. Chop 12 bell peppers and 12 onions, and add them to the kettle.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook the mixture over medium heat for 2 hours, stirring often to prevent sticking.

  2. Strain the cooked mixture through a fine sieve or a combined scoop and sieve.

Season and reduce

  1. Add 1½ pints of salt, 1 quart of vinegar, and the spices tied in a bag.

  2. Boil slowly for 12 hours, then transfer to wooden or earthen bowls and cover.

  3. In the morning, wash the kettle thoroughly and return the catsup to it.

  4. Boil slowly all day until thick, stirring frequently.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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, pulp and flavour base of the ketchup.
Bell peppers
Add vegetable bulk and mild sweetness to the cooked mixture.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and body as they soften during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the mixture and draws moisture out during long cooking.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until thick, stirring frequently. Long, gentle reduction concentrates flavour and thickens the sauce. Stirring often prevents scorching on the bottom of the kettle, where sugars and solids burn easily.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, onion, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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