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Tomato Ketchup, American

A thick, vinegary tomato ketchup made with spices and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Ketchup, American

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Cook the tomatoes until soft, then sieve to make 1 quart of pulp, discarding stems and seeds.

Cook the ketchup

  1. Tie the spices in a muslin bag and combine with the pulp and vinegar in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens to a cream-like consistency.

  3. Remove the spice bag, pressing it to extract flavor.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle the ketchup in small, well-corked bottles and store.

  2. Use with caution in delicate dishes.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato pulp
Forms the body and main flavor of the ketchup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the ketchup.
Cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Peppercorns
Adds sharp, aromatic spice flavor infused during cooking.
Mustard
Adds pungency and a savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until it thickens to a cream-like consistency. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the tomato pulp, so the sauce thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin, and over-reducing can make it pasty and dull in flavor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, clove, celery, ginger, mustard):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, clove, celery, ginger, mustard. 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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