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Sauce

Cold Catsup

A cold tomato-based sauce made with tomatoes, celery, onions, peppers, mustard seed, vinegar, sugar, black pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes and drain them.

  2. Cut the celery into small pieces.

  3. Chop the onions finely.

  4. Chop the peppers.

Mix and seal

  1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

  2. Seal the mixture in jars.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and main body of the catsup once drained.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the catsup its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
White mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during keeping.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the mixture.
Celery
Adds a fresh, vegetal crunch and subtle savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes. Tomatoes hold a lot of free water. Draining them first keeps the catsup thick rather than thin and watery, and stops the acid from being diluted.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, onion, pepper, mustard, vinegar, 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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