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, mixing and mashing them into small pieces.
Cover with a towel and stir occasionally for 3 days.
Drain the juice into an earthen jar.
Season and simmer
Add ginger, allspice, cayenne pepper, and ground mace to each quart of juice.
Cover the jar tightly and place it in a saucepan with cold water.
Bring to a boil and maintain boiling for 6 hours, adding boiling water as needed.
Pour the catchup into a saucepan and boil slowly for 30 minutes, skimming well.
Cool and bottle
Transfer to an earthen bowl and cool in a cool place.
Once cold and clear, pour off the liquid without disturbing the sediment and bottle 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.
-
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
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).
-
Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
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
- Release their juice under salt, which becomes the body of the ketchup.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the liquid through the long salting.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the reduced mushroom juice.
- Allspice
- Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the seasoned liquid.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds heat that gives the ketchup a sharp, pungent edge.
- Ground mace
- Adds a delicate, nutmeg-like aroma to the seasoned liquid.
The step that matters
Keeping the cooking jar sealed and the water boiling. A tightly covered jar in a water bath heats the liquid gently and evenly. If the water boils dry or the jar is opened early, the flavors concentrate unevenly and the ketchup can scorch or spoil.
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.
More mushroom ketchup recipes
You might also like
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.