Name: Pepper Catsup and Meat Dressing
Ingredients: fresh pepper pods; water; good vinegar

Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pepper Catsup and Meat Dressing

Ingredients

fresh pepper pods
water
good vinegar

Directions

Prepare

Nearly fill a stone jar with fresh pepper pods.
Pour enough water to cover the pods.

Make the catsup

Boil until the pods are soft enough to run through a sieve or colander.
Add enough good vinegar to achieve a catsup-like consistency.
Boil together for 15 to 20 minutes.
Fill small bottles.
Cork tightly.
Store in a cool 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.

Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh pepper pods: Provide the main body, flavour and colour of the catsup once softened and strained.
Good vinegar: Adds acidity and tang, and helps give the catsup its thin, pourable consistency.

“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.