Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Ketchup

A preserved tomato condiment made with tomatoes, spices, sugar, and brandy, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Layer sliced tomatoes in a large earthen crock, sprinkling salt between layers. Let stand for 8 hours.

Make the ketchup

  1. In a large saucepan, combine mustard seed, celery seed, whole cloves, bruised garlic, shredded ginger, capsicum peppers, mace, and horseradish.

  2. Add the tomatoes and sugar to the saucepan. Boil slowly for 3 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

  3. Add the brandy and strain the mixture while hot. Cover and let stand for 2 days.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle, cork, seal, and store in a cool place.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + capsicumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,520 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Capsicum + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,571 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 tomato flavor of the ketchup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes and seasons the base before cooking.
New brandy
Adds alcohol and aromatic flavor to the finished ketchup.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavor that deepens during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and stir to prevent burning. Sugar and tomato solids scorch easily on the bottom of a pan over long heating. Slow boiling with frequent stirring reduces sticking and bitter, burnt flavors.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, clove, garlic, ginger, capsicum, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, clove, garlic, ginger, capsicum, 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.

More tomato ketchup recipes

Green 26 See all 523 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes