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Mushroom Catsup

A fermented mushroom condiment made with salt, spices, and sweet oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the mushrooms

  1. Clean the mushrooms.

  2. Layer the mushrooms in a pan, sprinkling salt between each layer.

  3. Cover the pan.

  4. Let it stand for two days.

  5. Mash the mushrooms well.

  6. Strain through a fine sieve.

Spice and reduce

  1. Add 1½ ounces of black pepper, ½ ounce of allspice, and a few blades of mace to each quart of pulp.

  2. Boil the mixture until reduced to two-thirds of the original quantity, then pour it into a pan.

  3. Let it cool overnight.

  4. Strain again through a fine sieve.

Bottle and seal

  1. Bottle for use.

  2. Top each bottle with 1 tablespoon of sweet oil to exclude air.

  3. Cork tightly.

  4. Seal the corks.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + allspicetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together717 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh mushrooms
Provides the bulk and savoury flavour base of the ketchup.
Black pepper
Adds sharp heat and aroma to the liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, sweet-spiced aroma.
Mace
Adds a delicate, nutmeg-like aroma.
Sweet oil
Forms a layer over the surface that keeps air away from the bottled liquid.

The step that matters

Reducing to two-thirds. Boiling concentrates flavour and drives off water, which helps the ketchup keep. Stop at two-thirds of the original volume so the liquid stays pourable and the spices don't turn harsh.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, 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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