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Plum Catsup

A plum-based condiment made by boiling plums, adding spices, sugar, and vinegar, then thickening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the plums

  1. Cover the plums with water and boil until well cooked.

  2. Strain the mixture through a colander.

Season and thicken

  1. Add the spices, sugar, and vinegar to the strained mixture.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes or until it thickens.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Plum + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Plum + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Red plums
Provide the fruit base, pectin for body, and tart flavor once cooked down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the ketchup thicken as water evaporates.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharp tang that balances the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma that defines the ketchup's spiced flavor.
Ground allspice
Adds warm, clove-like aroma and depth to the spiced flavor.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes or until it thickens. As water evaporates, the plums, sugar and vinegar concentrate and thicken. Stop when it coats a spoon. Too short leaves it thin and runny, while too long can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the plum

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, pepper. 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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