Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Mushroom Ketchup
Ingredients
Directions
Salt and rest
Choose fresh, full-grown mushroom caps, avoiding those picked in heavy rain.
Layer mushrooms in a deep pan, sprinkling salt between layers.
Let them sit for a few hours.
Break them up by hand.
Place in a cool area for 3 days.
Stir and mash occasionally to extract juice.
Spice and cook
Measure the liquor without straining.
Add spices according to the proportions.
Transfer to a stone jar.
Cover tightly.
Place in a saucepan of boiling water.
Boil for 3 hours.
Pour into a clean stewpan.
Simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Settle and bottle
Let it cool overnight.
Pour off into another jug without disturbing the sediment.
Strain into dry, clean bottles without squeezing the mushrooms.
Add a few drops of brandy to each pint of ketchup.
Cork well and seal to exclude air.
Strain again if necessary for clarity.
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.
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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mushrooms
- Provide the bulk of the liquid and the savoury flavour of the ketchup.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws juice out of the mushrooms and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds heat that gives the ketchup its sharp, spicy bite.
- Allspice
- Contributes warm, aromatic flavour that rounds out the spice blend.
- Ginger
- Adds aromatic warmth and a light, spicy note.
- Mace
- Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the spice blend.
The step that matters
Boiling the sealed jar. Boiling the covered jar gently extracts flavour evenly while the lid keeps aroma in. Boiling too hard or uncovering it can drive off volatile spice aromas and concentrate the liquid unevenly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, pepper, allspice, ginger, brandy):
- Clovefits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, allspice, ginger, brandy. 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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