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Tomato Catchup

A seasoned tomato sauce reduced to a thick condiment.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catchup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the tomatoes and coarse sea salt in a pot.

  2. Add black pepper, ground cloves, allspice, ground mace, mustard, and vinegar.

  3. Bring to a boil and reduce the mixture by half.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the base, and reducing them concentrates their natural sugars and flavor into a thick sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the reduced tomatoes.

The step that matters

Reducing the mixture by half. As water evaporates, the sugars and flavors concentrate and the sauce thickens. Sugars can scorch on the bottom of the pot if the heat is too high or the mixture is not stirred, so keep the simmer gentle and watch it closely.

Swap the mace

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

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

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