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Geape Catsup

A sweet and spicy grape preserve made by boiling grapes with sugar, vinegar, cloves, allspice, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Geape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Boil the grapes until soft.

  2. Press the grapes through a colander to remove seeds and skins.

Cook and bottle

  1. Boil the grape pulp with the remaining ingredients slowly until thick.

  2. Bottle and seal the mixture.

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. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the ketchup thicken and keep well.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until thick. Thickening happens as water evaporates and the sugar concentrates. Heat that is too high can scorch the sugars on the bottom of the pan, giving a bitter taste, while heat that is too low leaves the ketchup too thin to keep well.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, allspice. 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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