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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato-based condiment made by cooking tomatoes with spices, sugar, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes.

  2. Cut the tomatoes.

  3. Cook the tomatoes until very soft.

  4. Press the cooked tomatoes through a sieve.

Cook the ketchup

  1. Tie the spices loosely in cheesecloth.

  2. Add the spices tied in cheesecloth and the other ingredients.

  3. Simmer slowly for 3 to 4 hours, or until thick.

  4. Remove the spices.

Bottle

  1. Pour into sterile bottles and seal.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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, pulp and tomato flavour of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften into the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the finished ketchup its thick, glossy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.

The step that matters

Simmering slowly until thick. Tomato sauce thickens as water evaporates over a long, gentle simmer. Too fast a boil can scorch the sugars and sticks on the bottom, while stopping too early leaves a thin ketchup that may spoil sooner.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, sugar. 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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