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Salad

Anchovy Catsup

A preserved anchovy condiment made with vinegar, onions, anchovies, spices, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Anchovy Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine vinegar, onions, anchovies, mace, salt, sugar, cloves, peppercorns, ground pepper, cayenne, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a preserving kettle.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for 4 hours until it reduces to half the original quantity.

  3. Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.

  4. Do not bottle until the next day; sealed, it will keep for years.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide a salty, savory depth that defines the ketchup's flavor.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid base and gives the ketchup its sharp acidity.
Tomatoes
Add body and a fruity sweetness as the mixture reduces.
Mushrooms
Contribute savory, umami richness and body to the reduced liquid.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and body as they cook down.

The step that matters

Slow boil reduction. Boiling slowly for the full 4 hours concentrates the flavors and thickens the liquid to half its volume. Boiling too hard can scorch the solids on the bottom of the kettle and turn the flavor bitter. Keeping the heat gentle lets the mixture reduce evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, onion, sugar, clove, pepper, mushroom, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, onion, sugar, clove, pepper, mushroom, tomato. 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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