Why it works: Mushroom and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,529 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Mushroom Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Macerate
Macerate the mushrooms with salt for three to four days.
Reduce and season
Strain and measure the liquid, then boil it quickly until reduced by half.
For each quart of liquid, add ½ oz black pepper or ¼ teaspoon cayenne and 1 drachm mace.
Settle and bottle
Pour the catsup into a clean jug or jar, cover with a folded cloth, and keep in a cool place overnight.
Gently pour off the sediment and transfer the catsup into small bottles.
Cork the bottles well and seal with rosin. Optionally, add 1 teaspoon salad oil to each bottle before corking to exclude air.
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 + macetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,529 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 bulk of the liquid and the savoury, umami flavour of the ketchup.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the liquid through the maceration.
- Black peppercorns
- Add a pungent, warm spice that seasons the reduced liquid.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the finished ketchup.
The step that matters
Boiling the strained liquid until reduced by half. Boiling concentrates the flavour and drives off water, so the ketchup keeps better and tastes stronger. Boiling too briefly leaves it weak and more likely to spoil.
“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.
More mushroom ketchup recipes
You might also like
Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipes
Caper Sauce180 recipes
Brown Sauce141 recipes
Dutch Sauce74 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.