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Tomato Condiment

A sweet and spicy tomato sauce made with tomatoes, brown sugar, cider vinegar, mace, and mixed spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Tomato Condiment

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the skinned tomatoes and brown sugar in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens, stirring often.

  3. Add the cider vinegar, mace, and mixed spices.

  4. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cider + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together658 recipes
  5. Tomato + cidertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Skinned tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide most of its moisture and body as they cook down.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce thicken and turn glossy as water evaporates.
Cider vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens, stirring often. As water evaporates, the sugar and tomato solids concentrate and can scorch on the bottom of the pot. Frequent stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the sauce from burning while it thickens.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, cider, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, cider, 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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