Skip to main content
Sauce

Mushroom Ketchup

A preserved mushroom sauce made by simmering mushrooms, spices, and aromatics, then cooling and storing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mushroom Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Place the mushrooms in a stew pan and sprinkle with salt.

  2. Set over a slow fire until they produce liquor, then strain the liquid.

Make the ketchup

  1. Add shallots, garlic, pepper, ginger, mace, cloves, and bay leaves to the liquid.

  2. Boil and skim well.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Cork tightly.

  5. Store.

Re-boil to preserve

  1. After two months, boil again with fresh spices and horseradish for preservation.

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. Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Provide the main bulk and the savoury, umami-rich liquor that forms the ketchup base.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the mushrooms so they release their liquor and help preserve the ketchup.
Shallots
Add aromatic sharpness and savoury depth to the liquid as it simmers.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and deepens during boiling.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma infused into the liquid.

The step that matters

Strain the liquid after the slow fire. Mushrooms must be cooked slowly so they release their liquor gently without scorching. Straining removes solids so the ketchup stays clear and smooth, and the liquid must be fully boiled and skimmed to remove foam that could spoil it.

Swap the horseradish

The recipe marks horseradish as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, shallot, clove, garlic, pepper, ginger, mace):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, shallot, clove, garlic, pepper, ginger, mace. 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.

More mushroom ketchup recipes

Sauce 4 See all 229 →

You might also like

Ginger SauceGinger Sauce12 recipesHorseradish Cream SauceHorseradish Cream Sauce6 recipesWine Sauce (for stewed fruit)Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipesCaper SauceCaper Sauce180 recipes