Name: Currant Catsup
Ingredients: 5 pounds currants; 1 quart vinegar; 3 pounds sugar; 2 tablespoons ground cloves; 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon ground pepper; 1 grated nutmeg

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Currant Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine currants, vinegar, sugar, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ground pepper, and grated nutmeg in a large pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants: Provide the fruit base and tartness that give the ketchup its body and bright flavor.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that balances the sugar and helps preserve the cooked fruit.
Sugar: Sweetens the ketchup and thickens it as it cooks down into a syrupy consistency.
Ground cloves: Contribute warm, pungent aroma that defines the spiced character of the sauce.
Ground cinnamon: Adds sweet woody aroma that rounds out the spice blend.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg):

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg. 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.