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Tomato Catsup, Epicurean Style

A tomato-based condiment made by boiling tomatoes, puréeing, seasoning, and preserving in bottles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup, Epicurean Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes in halves.

  2. Boil the tomatoes in a saucepan for 15 minutes.

  3. Drain the tomatoes on a cloth placed in a colander.

  4. Rub the tomatoes through a fine sieve to make a puree.

Make the ketchup

  1. Put the puree in a flat saucepan.

  2. Season the puree with salt and red pepper.

  3. Add Worcestershire sauce and wine vinegar.

  4. Reduce the catsup to the desired consistency.

  5. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Bottle and seal

  1. Bottle the catsup.

  2. Cork the bottles tightly.

  3. Boil the bottles in a hot water bath for 25 minutes.

  4. Keep the bottles tightly corked at all times.

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

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

  2. Tomato + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,759 recipes

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

  3. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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, flavour and natural pectin that the puree thickens around.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth and salty umami to the ketchup.
Wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.

The step that matters

Reducing the puree to the desired consistency. Cooking the puree slowly drives off water, concentrating flavour and thickening it. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking makes it dense and sticky, so check the texture as it cooks.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sauce, wine, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sauce, wine, vinegar. 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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