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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made with tomatoes, spices, sugar, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes.

  2. Cook the tomatoes.

  3. Strain the tomatoes through a sieve.

Season and simmer

  1. For each gallon of liquid, add 3 tablespoons of coarse sea salt.

  2. Place allspice, cloves, and cinnamon in a thin muslin bag.

  3. Boil the muslin bag in the liquid.

  4. Add celery seed and grated nutmeg to the liquid.

  5. Boil half an onion in a little of the liquid.

  6. Strain the onion into the catsup.

  7. Boil everything together until thickened.

Finish

  1. Just before removing from heat, stir in 1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of vinegar.

  2. Season with black and white pepper to taste.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the liquid and body that the ketchup thickens from.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the tomato base and draws out flavor.
Allspice, cloves, and cinnamon
Provide warm spice aroma infused into the cooking liquid from the muslin bag.

The step that matters

Boil everything together until thickened. Tomato ketchup thickens only as water evaporates during a long simmer. Stopping early leaves it thin, while overcooking can scorch the sugars and dull the flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, allspice, clove, cinnamon, celery, nutmeg, sugar):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, allspice, clove, cinnamon, celery, nutmeg, sugar. 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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