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Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made by boiling tomatoes with vinegar, spices, sugar, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes and place them in a large pot.

  2. Add vinegar, salt, Cayenne pepper, allspice, mustard, onions, brown sugar, and peach leaves.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil the mixture for five hours.

  2. Strain the mixture through a colander.

  3. If the catsup is not thick enough, boil it a little longer.

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. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 of the sauce and provide most of its liquid and flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the finished sauce.
Onions
Add savoury depth and body as they soften during the long boil.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and tomato acidity.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that complements the tomatoes and spices.

The step that matters

Boiling until thick. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomato solids, so the sauce thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can make it too dense and sticky.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper, allspice, mustard, onion, sugar. 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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