Why it works: Ginger and allspice 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 Catchup
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the mushrooms
Layer mushrooms in an earthen bowl, sprinkling each layer with coarse sea salt.
Let sit in a cool, dry place for 6 hours.
Mix and mash the mushrooms into small pieces.
Cover with a towel for 3 days, stirring occasionally.
Drain off the juice and transfer it to an earthen jar.
Spice and simmer
Add ½ ounce ginger, ½ ounce allspice, 1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper, and ½ teaspoon ground mace to each quart of juice.
Cover the jar tightly.
Place the jar in a saucepan with cold water.
Bring to a boil.
Maintain boiling for 6 hours, adding boiling water as needed.
Finish and bottle
Pour the catchup into a saucepan and boil slowly for 30 minutes, skimming well.
Transfer to an earthen bowl and let cool in a cool place.
Once cold and clear, pour off the liquid without disturbing the sediment and bottle it tightly.
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.
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Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Main body of the ketchup, releasing juice that becomes the sauce base.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture during the long rest.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, aromatic pungency that flavours the finished ketchup.
- Allspice
- Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the ketchup.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds heat that gives the ketchup its sharp, pungent edge.
- Ground mace
- Adds a delicate, aromatic spice note to the ketchup.
The step that matters
Skimming during the final boil. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise to the surface, so the ketchup stays clear and its sediment settles cleanly for bottling.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, ginger, allspice, pepper):
- Clovefits better
- Thymefits better
- Turmericfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, ginger, allspice, 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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