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Grape Catsup

A sweet and tangy grape-based condiment made by cooking grapes with sugar, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the grapes

  1. Wash and stew the grapes over low heat until soft.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Season and thicken

  1. Add sugar, cinnamon, allspice, black pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

  2. Boil until slightly thickened.

  3. Bottle the catsup.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the fruit base and most of the body of the ketchup.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates, helps the sauce thicken and keep.
Cider vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the sauce.
Allspice
Adds warm aroma and flavour that defines the spiced character of the ketchup.

The step that matters

Boil until slightly thickened. Thickening happens as water evaporates and the sugar and fruit solids concentrate. Stop too early and the ketchup stays thin and may not keep well; boil too long and it becomes stiff and can scorch on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, cider, vinegar. 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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