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Sliced Tomato Catsup

A pickled relish made from sliced green tomatoes, onions, and peppers simmered with vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sliced Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle sliced tomatoes and onions with salt and let sit overnight.

Make the catsup

  1. In a large pot, combine vinegar, brown sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil.

  2. Add the tomatoes, onions, and green peppers to the boiling mixture.

  3. Let the mixture boil together for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body and bulk of the catsup once cooked down.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften in the simmering liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the catsup its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note that balances the acidity.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and flavor to the spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Long simmer with stirring. The mixture must boil for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally, so the vegetables break down and the liquid reduces to a thick sauce. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot, where sugar can burn.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, pepper, cinnamon, clove, 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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