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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato sauce made by cooking tomatoes with sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes and cut them up without peeling.

  2. Use very ripe tomatoes and stir frequently while cooking.

  3. Do not cook more than 1 gallon in 1 kettle; if you have more, divide into 2 kettles.

Make the ketchup

  1. Cook in a granite kettle or pan until soft and thick, stirring often to prevent burning.

  2. If cooking on a gas or gasoline stove, place a lid under the kettle to prevent scorching.

  3. When cool, run through a fine strainer or wire sieve.

  4. Return to the kettle, add all the seasonings, and cook until thick.

  5. Use whole spices tied loosely in cheesecloth bags.

  6. Test thickness by cooling a little in a dish.

Bottle and seal

  1. Strain again, then bottle and seal or fill in fruit jars while hot.

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. Mustard + celerytop 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. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato pulp
Forms the base of the ketchup and provides most of its body and flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.
Black mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma and flavour to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Stirring and heat control during cooking. Tomato pulp is thick and sugary, so it sticks and scorches on the bottom of the kettle. Frequent stirring and a gentle heat, or a lid on gas stoves, keep it from burning, which would taste bitter and spoil the batch.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, vinegar, mustard, celery, pepper, cinnamon. 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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