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Sauce

Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based sauce made with tomatoes, salt, pepper, cloves, allspice, red pepper, onions, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to remove the skins.

  2. Place the skinned tomatoes in a kettle with the vinegar and boil for 2 hours.

Strain and season

  1. Pass the mixture through a colander.

  2. Add the celery seed and mix well.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the catsup while hot.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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
Form the main body and liquid of the sauce, becoming thick and smooth as they cook down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften during the long simmer.
Garlic
Contributes a pungent aroma that rounds out the spiced flavor.

The step that matters

Bottle the catsup while hot. Filling the bottles while the sauce is still hot helps drive air out and supports a good seal, which matters for keeping the sauce safe and stable in storage.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, allspice, onion, sugar, garlic, 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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