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Mushroom Ketchup

A preserved mushroom condiment made with salt, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Mushroom Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and chop the mushrooms finely.

  2. Mix the chopped mushrooms with salt and let sit for 24 hours.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add vinegar and spices to the mushroom mixture.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Strain the liquid through a fine cloth into a bottle.

Store

  1. Seal the bottle and store in a cool, dark 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. Allspice + clovetop 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main body and savoury umami flavour of the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture during its long rest.
White vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps preserve the finished ketchup.
Black peppercorns
Contribute warm, pungent aroma to the spiced liquid.
Allspice berries
Add warm, aromatic spice notes that round out the flavour.
Cloves
Add strong, sweet-spicy aroma to the simmered liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Gentle simmering extracts flavour from the spices and mushrooms while concentrating the liquid. Stirring prevents solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot, which would add bitter, burnt flavours.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, vinegar, allspice, clove. 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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