Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
To Make Mushroom Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Salt the mushrooms
Break the mushrooms into pieces and place them in a pan.
Add ¼ pound of coarse sea salt for every peck of mushrooms and let them sit for three days.
Transfer the mixture to a jar and cover it with brown paper.
Place the jar in a 300°F (150°C) oven for four to five hours.
Remove from the oven and drain the liquid through a sieve.
Spice and boil
For every gallon of liquid, add 1 ounce of cloves, 1 ounce of black pepper, sliced ginger, long peppers, and 6 ounces of coarse sea salt.
Heat the mixture over low heat and let it boil for one hour.
Bottle and store
Once cooled, bottle the catsup, adding an equal amount of spice to each bottle.
Cork the bottles tightly and store in a cool place.
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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Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,663 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large broad mushrooms
- Form the bulk of the ketchup and release the liquid that becomes the sauce.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mushrooms and preserves the liquid for storage.
- Cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the finished ketchup.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp, pungent heat and spice to the finished ketchup.
- Sliced ginger
- Adds a fresh, aromatic, slightly peppery flavour to the liquid.
The step that matters
Salting the mushrooms. Salt must be measured against the mushrooms so the liquid is drawn out and preserves the sauce. Too little salt lets the mixture spoil before it is bottled.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, clove, pepper):
- Thymefits better
- Allspicefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, 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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