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Sauce

Tomata Catsup

A tomato-based sauce seasoned with anchovies, shallots, spices, and optional cochineal, simmered and strained into a bottle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomata Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup base

  1. Mash the ripe tomatoes and add the coarse sea salt.

  2. Press out the juice and add the chopped anchovies, shallots, and ground black pepper.

  3. Simmer the mixture for 15 minutes, then strain it through a sieve.

Season and finish

  1. Add the ground mace, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cochineal to the strained mixture.

  2. Simmer for another 20 minutes and strain through a bag.

  3. Let it cool and then 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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 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. Ginger + nutmegtop 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and tomato flavor of the ketchup.
Anchovies
Add savory depth and umami that rounds out the sweetness and acidity.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, aromatic onion flavor to the base.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out tomato juice and seasons the mixture.
Ground black pepper
Adds sharp, warm aroma and gentle heat.

The step that matters

Simmering and straining the base. Simmering thickens the tomato by evaporating water and concentrates flavor, while straining removes skins and seeds for a smooth texture. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin and watery.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, pepper, mace, allspice, ginger, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, pepper, mace, allspice, ginger, nutmeg. 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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