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Massachusetts Catsup

A tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, vinegar, and spices, cooked until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Massachusetts Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onions and red peppers finely.

  2. Peel the ripe tomatoes.

Make the ketchup

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped onions, red peppers, peeled tomatoes, salt, brown sugar, and vinegar.

  2. Add cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg to taste.

  3. Cook the mixture over medium heat until thickened, stirring occasionally.

  4. Bottle the catsup while hot and seal.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavor, and bulk of the sauce as they cook down.
Onions
Add savory depth and aromatic sweetness as they soften during cooking.
Red peppers
Contribute vegetable flavor and some sweetness to the cooked sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the finished sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Tomatoes and onions release water as they cook, so the sauce needs enough time over medium heat to reduce and thicken. Stirring occasionally prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, ginger. 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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