Skip to main content
Main

Cucumber Catsup

A fermented cucumber and onion condiment seasoned with anchovies, vinegar, nutmeg, mace, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice cucumbers and onions thinly and place in a sieve.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let drain over a pan for 12 hours.

Make the ketchup

  1. Combine the drained liquid with 4 ounces of anchovies, 1 pint of white vinegar, 1 nutmeg, ¼ ounce of mace, and ½ ounce of whole pepper.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Strain the liquid.

Bottle

  1. Once cooled, bottle the catsup.

  2. Seal with a bladder.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Cucumber + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together432 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Release a watery liquid under salt that forms the base of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savory, aromatic flavour to the drained liquid as it is boiled.
Anchovies
Contribute deep savoury, salty flavour to the finished sauce.
White vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Let drain over a pan for 12 hours. Salting draws water out of the cucumbers and onions by osmosis. Draining long enough collects the liquid that forms the base of the ketchup, so the vegetables must be well salted and fully drained before boiling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, vinegar, nutmeg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, vinegar, nutmeg, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes