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Tomato Catchup

A preserved tomato condiment made by boiling tomatoes, adding vinegar, spices, and reducing the mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Boil the tomatoes in a porcelain kettle until soft.

  2. Press them through a sieve.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add vinegar, cloves, salt, Cayenne pepper, garlic, whole pepper, allspice, mace, and celery seed.

  2. Mix all together and boil until reduced by half.

  3. Strain the mixture and bottle it.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its body and flavor when cooked down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and sharpens the flavors of the other ingredients.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savory depth to the sauce.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.
Cloves
Contributes intense warm aroma that flavors the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced by half. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomato solids and spices, thickening the sauce. Stopping early leaves it thin and watery, while overcooking can make it too dense and intensely flavored.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, clove, pepper, garlic, allspice, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, clove, pepper, garlic, allspice, celery. 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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