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Oyster Catsup

A fermented oyster sauce made with cider, salt, cayenne pepper, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Oyster Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the oysters and save the liquor.

  2. Scald the oysters in the saved liquor with the cider.

  3. Strain the oysters and place them in a mortar.

  4. Add salt, cayenne, and mace, then pound until a pulp forms.

Make and bottle the ketchup

  1. Combine the pulp with the liquor and boil for 5 minutes, skimming well.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve, then bottle and cork closely.

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. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Cider + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together658 recipes
  3. Cider + peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,234 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Oyster + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,910 recipes

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh oysters
Provide the main body and savory flavor of the ketchup.
Cider
Adds acidity and fruity sharpness to balance the oysters.
Ground mace
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that sharpens the overall flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming while boiling. Boiling the oyster pulp with its liquor releases foam and impurities that rise to the surface. Skimming them off keeps the ketchup clear and clean-tasting rather than scummy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, cider, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, cider, pepper. 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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