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Sauce

Seven-years Ketchup

A fermented ketchup made by boiling beer, wine, anchovies, and spices for weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Seven-years Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the beer, red wine, anchovies, shallots, mace, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger in a pot.

  2. Boil over moderate heat until one-third of the liquid evaporates.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool completely, then transfer it to a large jar and cover it.

Rest and clarify

  1. Let it sit for one to two weeks until the sediment settles and the liquid is clear.

  2. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

Adjust and bottle

  1. Taste and add any desired essence of spice, oil, or vinegar to improve the flavor.

  2. If the liquid is not clear, bring it to a boil again, let it cool, and then bottle it in small bottles to minimize air exposure.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid to add deep savoury, umami depth to the ketchup.
Shallots
Contribute aromatic sweetness and savoury base flavour as they steep in the liquid.
Red wine
Provides acidity and body, helping to build the liquid's flavour backbone.
Strong beer
Adds malty depth and body, and its alcohol helps extract flavour from the spices.

The step that matters

Letting it rest until clear. Sediment must settle fully over one to two weeks before straining. Rushing this leaves cloudy liquid, and a clear result depends on time rather than on handling the liquid early.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, red wine, shallot, nutmeg, clove, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, red wine, shallot, nutmeg, clove, ginger. 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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