Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Apple Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Pare and quarter the apples, then cook them in very little water until soft.
Pulp the cooked apples through a sieve.
Make and seal the ketchup
For each quart of pulp, mix in 2 cups vinegar, 2 chopped onions, 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon each of mustard, cloves, and pepper, and 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt.
Boil the mixture for 1 hour.
Put the hot catsup into jars and seal tightly.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 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
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the pulp, which thickens into the body of the ketchup.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps keep it stable.
- Onions
- Add savory depth and aromatic flavor as they soften in the mixture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and spices.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for 1 hour. A full hour of boiling lets the pulp reduce and thicken and the flavors meld. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and less stable in the jar.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard, clove, pepper):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Radishfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard, clove, pepper. 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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