Name: Crab Apple Catsup
Ingredients: 2 quarts round apples, peeled and quartered; 2 teacups sugar; 2 teaspoons pepper; 2 teaspoons cloves; 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 3 large onions, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); cider vinegar, enough to cover

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 ↓

Crab Apple Catsup

Ingredients

2 quarts round apples, peeled and quartered
2 teacups sugar
2 teaspoons pepper
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 large onions, chopped fine
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
cider vinegar, enough to cover

Directions

Prepare the apples

Stew the apples in as little water as possible until tender.
Press the cooked apples through a sieve.

Make the ketchup

In a large bowl, combine the sieved apples with sugar, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and chopped onions.
Stir in the coarse sea salt and enough cider vinegar to cover the mixture.
Boil the mixture for one hour.
Seal the catsup while hot.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Round apples: Provide the pulp and pectin that give the ketchup its body.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the ketchup.
Onions: Add savory depth and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for one hour. Long boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates flavor while the vinegar and sugar help preserve the ketchup. Too short a boil leaves it thin and less stable on the shelf.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Horseradishfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, pepper, clove, cinnamon, cider, vinegar. 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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Apple Cider11 recipes

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Crab Apple Catsup