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Green Tomato Catsup

A fermented tomato-based condiment made with green tomatoes, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Green Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup

  1. Boil the chopped green tomatoes, vinegar, and red peppers together for 1.5 hours.

  2. Add the brown sugar, mustard, ground cloves, salt, allspice, and cinnamon.

  3. Continue boiling for up to 3 hours.

Bottle and serve

  1. Bottle or can the mixture and seal.

  2. Serve with meats.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body and tart flavor of the ketchup as they cook down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, color, and mild body as they soften during boiling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps thicken the ketchup as it cooks down.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness and acidity.

The step that matters

Long simmer after adding the sugar and spices. Extended boiling reduces water and concentrates the sugars and acids, thickening the ketchup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while overcooking can scorch the sugars and make it too dark or bitter.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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