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Sauce

Grape Catsup

A sweet and spicy grape-based sauce made by boiling grapes in vinegar, then adding sugar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the grapes

  1. Boil the grapes in the vinegar until well cooked.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Season and simmer

  1. Add the brown sugar, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, and ground black pepper.

  2. Simmer all together for 1 hour.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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

Grapes
Provide the fruit base and pulp that cooks down into the thick body of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note, and thickens the sauce as water evaporates.
Ground cloves
Contributes a strong, warm aroma.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma.
Ground allspice
Adds a warm, peppery aroma.

The step that matters

Simmering for 1 hour. A long, gentle simmer evaporates water so the sauce thickens. Sugar and fruit solids can scorch on the bottom of the pan if the heat is too high, so keep it at a steady simmer.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon, allspice, 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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