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Tomato Ketchup

A thick tomato sauce made by simmering tomatoes with spices, vinegar, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Boil very slowly until the mixture is reduced by nearly half.

  3. Pour the ketchup into bottles for storage.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Strained tomatoes
Form the bulk of the ketchup and provide its main body and flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and salt.
Salt
Seasons the ketchup and helps draw out moisture during simmering.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, aromatic heat to the spice blend.
Mustard
Adds pungency and a savory sharpness that complements the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Boil very slowly until reduced by nearly half. Too vigorous a boil can scorch the tomato solids on the pot bottom and burn the flavor. Slow simmering evaporates water gradually, thickening the sauce while concentrating its flavors.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mustard, clove, ginger, vinegar, sugar, brandy):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, clove, ginger, vinegar, sugar, brandy. 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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