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Tomato Catsup, Epicurean Style

A preserved tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes, puréeing, seasoning with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar, then bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup, Epicurean Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes in halves and boil them in a saucepan for 15 minutes.

  2. Drain the tomatoes on a cloth placed in a colander and let them dry.

  3. Rub the dried tomatoes through a fine sieve to make a puree.

Make the ketchup

  1. In a flat saucepan, combine the puree with salt, red pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and wine vinegar.

  2. Reduce the mixture to the desired consistency over heat.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool before bottling.

Bottle and process

  1. Cork the bottles tightly and boil them in a hot water bath for 25 minutes.

  2. Keep the bottles tightly corked at all times.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavor and natural pectin that thickens the sauce as it reduces.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory depth and tang to the ketchup.
Wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps preserve the ketchup.

The step that matters

Reduce to the desired consistency. Cooking the puree down over heat evaporates water and concentrates the tomato solids, so the ketchup thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin, and over-reducing makes it pasty and dense.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sauce, wine, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sauce, wine, 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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