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Cold Tomato Catsup

A cold tomato sauce made with tomatoes, onions, mustard seed, spices, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cold Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop tomatoes finely and strain them.

Make the ketchup

  1. Mix the strained tomatoes with onions, mustard seed, salt, sugar, red peppers, celery, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and cider vinegar.

  2. Let the mixture stand for two days before using.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 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

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the ketchup and provide its main body and flavor.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, slightly bitter note that deepens the savory flavor.
Onions
Add savory depth and aromatic background flavor to the sauce.
Celery
Adds a vegetal, savory note that rounds out the spice blend.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for two days before using. Resting lets the spices, vinegar, and vegetables steep into the tomato base, so flavors meld and mellow. Using it too early leaves the spices harsh and the taste unbalanced.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, sugar, pepper, celery, clove, cinnamon. 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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