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Sauce

Mushroom Catsup

A fermented mushroom sauce made by brining, seasoning, boiling, and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the mushrooms

  1. Layer mushrooms and salt in an earthen jar, using ½ pound of salt for 2 quarts of mushrooms.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 6 hours.

  3. Cut the mushrooms into small pieces.

  4. Let them sit for 3 days, stirring once daily.

  5. Strain the mixture.

Season and cook

  1. Add ½ ounce each of allspice and ginger.

  2. Add ½ teaspoon powdered mace.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper to every quart of juice.

  4. Place the mixture in a stone jar.

  5. Set it in a kettle of boiling water.

  6. Boil briskly for 5 hours.

  7. Simmer in a porcelain kettle for 45 minutes.

Settle and bottle

  1. Let it cool overnight in a cool place.

  2. Drain off the clear liquid.

  3. Bottle it.

  4. Cork the bottles.

  5. Seal tightly.

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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the bulk of the ketchup and release their juice when salted.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture against spoilage.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavor to the ketchup.
Ginger
Adds spicy, aromatic warmth to the ketchup.
Powdered mace
Adds a delicate, nutmeg-like aroma to the ketchup.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that gives the ketchup a sharp, spicy finish.

The step that matters

Salting and standing the mushrooms. Salt must be measured against the mushrooms so they release enough juice and the mixture stays protected. Too little salt lets the mushrooms spoil during the three days of standing, while the long boil concentrates the liquid and the flavors.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, allspice, ginger, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, allspice, ginger, pepper. 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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