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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato-based condiment seasoned with salt, pepper, mustard, cloves, allspice, red pepper, garlic, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the strained tomatoes, salt, black pepper, mustard, cloves, allspice, red pepper, garlic, and vinegar.

  2. To prevent the catsup from becoming dark, place the dark spices and garlic in a cloth bag and add it to the pot.

  3. Boil the mixture until it reaches your desired thickness.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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

Strained tomatoes
Form the bulk of the ketchup and provide its main body and flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Salt
Seasons the sauce and sharpens the overall tomato flavour.
Garlic
Adds aroma and savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bagging the dark spices. Cloves, allspice and garlic can darken the sauce when simmered for a long time. Keeping them in a cloth bag limits their contact with the tomatoes, so the ketchup stays a brighter red.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, clove, allspice, garlic, 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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