Why it works: Mushroom and brandy work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 206 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Mushroom Ketchup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mushrooms
Clean the mushrooms without washing them.
Layer the mushrooms in a deep pan with salt, repeating until the pan is nearly full.
Cover the pan and let the mushrooms stand for three hours in a warm place until soft.
Press the mushrooms down with a wooden spoon.
Keep the pan for two days, stirring and mashing twice daily.
Jar and cook
Pour the pulp and liquid into stone jars, adding allspice and black peppercorns.
Seal the jars tightly.
Place the sealed jars in a pot with boiling water, ensuring the water reaches nearly the top of the jars.
Boil the jars for about 3.5 hours.
Alternatively, steam the jars for the same duration.
Remove the jars from the pot.
Pour off the liquid from the jars.
Strain and clarify
Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a clean pot.
Simmer the liquid for one hour, skimming off any scum that rises.
Pour the ketchup into a clean, dry jug and let it stand covered in a cool place for about 20 hours.
Decant the clear liquid from the sediment through a thick flannel bag.
Add French brandy to the decanted liquid.
Let the mixture stand in the jug again.
Store the pure ketchup in small, clean, dry bottles.
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.
-
Mushroom + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together206 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Mushroom + allspicetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together717 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
-
Allspice + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together931 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mushrooms
- Provide the main body and savoury flavour of the ketchup.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture during standing.
- Allspice berries
- Add warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the liquid during cooking.
- Black peppercorns
- Contribute sharp, aromatic pungency to the finished ketchup.
- French brandy
- Adds alcohol and aroma, helping preserve the ketchup and round its flavour.
The step that matters
Covering the jars and keeping the water at the right level during the long boil. The sealed jars must stay fully immersed in steadily simmering water for the whole 3.5 hours. If the water drops below the jar tops, the contents heat unevenly and the seal and preservation may fail.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, brandy):
- Clovefits better
- Thymefits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, brandy. 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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