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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato sauce made by simmering tomatoes, vinegar, spices, and mustard for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 6 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, sweetness and tomato flavour that forms the ketchup base.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, warm spice that rounds out the savoury flavour.
Mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that gives the ketchup a noticeable background kick.

The step that matters

Simmer for 6 hours, stirring occasionally. A long, gentle simmer lets water evaporate so the mixture thickens and the flavours concentrate. Too little time leaves it thin and watery, while too much heat can scorch the bottom of the pot, so stirring matters.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, mustard, allspice. 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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