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Sauce

Mother's Tomato Catsup

A tomato-based sauce seasoned with salt, mace, pepper, cayenne, cloves, mustard, celery seed, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Mother's Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut a slit in the tomatoes. Place the tomatoes in a porcelain kettle.

  2. Boil until all juice is extracted and pulp is dissolved.

  3. Strain the tomatoes. Press through a colander. Press through a fine sieve.

Season and cook

  1. Return to the fire. Add seasoning.

  2. Boil for at least 5 hours, stirring constantly for the last half hour.

Rest and bottle

  1. Let it stand for 12 hours in a stone jar in a cool place.

  2. When cold, add 1 pint of strong vinegar. Remove the bag of celery seed.

  3. Bottle the catsup. Seal the corks. Store in a dark, 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce, providing body, moisture and most of the flavor.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw out moisture during the long simmer.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Ground mustard
Adds a pungent, sharp note that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Stirring during the final half hour of boiling. Thick tomato sauce scorches easily on the bottom of the pan as water evaporates and sugars concentrate. Constant stirring at the end prevents burning and gives an even, smooth texture.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, clove, mustard, celery, 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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