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Mushroom Catsup

A preserved mushroom ketchup made by salting, drying, and simmering mushroom liquid with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mushroom Catsup

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Salt the mushrooms

  1. Break a peck of large mushrooms into a deep ceramic pot.

  2. Stir in 5 lbs of coarse sea salt.

  3. Cover with a cloth or paper.

  4. Set in a cool oven (300°F / 150°C) overnight.

Make the ketchup

  1. Strain the liquid.

  2. Measure the liquid.

  3. Boil the liquid for 15 minutes.

  4. For each quart of liquid, add 1 oz black pepper, ¼ oz allspice, ½ oz ginger, and 2 blades of mace.

  5. Boil for an additional 20 minutes.

Bottle and seal

  1. Bottle the catsup.

  2. Cork well.

  3. Seal the necks to keep air out.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Mushrooms
Release their liquid and flavour, forming the base of the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Draws liquid out of the mushrooms and preserves the mixture against spoilage.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that rounds out the savoury flavour.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the seasoning.
Ginger
Adds a bright, aromatic warmth to the seasoned liquid.
Mace
Adds a delicate, nutmeg-like aroma that complements the spices.

The step that matters

Salting and resting the mushrooms overnight. Salt must fully penetrate and draw out the mushroom liquid while the pot stays covered and cool. Too little salt or too much heat can let the mixture spoil before the liquid is extracted and boiled.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, allspice, 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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