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Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based condiment made by simmering tomatoes with spices, vinegar, and sugar, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wipe tomatoes with a damp cloth, cut out cores, and place in a porcelain kettle.

  2. Add 3 pints of water and 2 handfuls of peach leaves, along with 10-12 finely chopped onions.

  3. Boil for about 2 hours until tomatoes are done.

  4. Strain through a coarse sieve and return the liquid to the kettle.

Season and cook

  1. Add ½ gallon of cider vinegar and mix in the ground spice, black pepper, mustard, ground cloves, grated nutmegs, brown sugar, and salt.

  2. Boil for 2 hours, stirring continually, and add Cayenne pepper if desired.

Bottle and store

  1. Once cool, fill bottles, cork, and seal.

  2. Store in a cool, dry place.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  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 ketchup, providing bulk, flavour and natural pectin for thickness.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aromatic sweetness as they cook down into the sauce.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and rounds out the tomato's acidity.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw out flavour while contributing to preservation.

The step that matters

Boiling for 2 hours with continual stirring. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomato, while constant stirring prevents sugars and solids from scorching on the base of the kettle, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, cider, vinegar, pepper, mustard, clove. 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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