Skip to main content
Main

Green Tomato Catsup

A fermented tomato condiment made with green tomatoes, onions, spices, brown sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Green Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and onions, and layer them in a bowl, sprinkling salt between each layer.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours, then drain.

Cook and finish

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the drained mixture with mustard seed, allspice, cloves, ground mustard, ground ginger, black pepper, celery seed, and brown sugar.

  2. Cover with vinegar and boil for 2 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve and bottle for use.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk and tart flavour that forms the body of the catsup.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma that blends into the sauce as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the catsup its tang and helps preserve it.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavour that deepens during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the tomato and onion layers. Salt draws water out of the sliced vegetables through osmosis. Draining after the 24-hour rest removes this liquid, so the catsup thickens rather than becoming thin and watery during the long boil.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, pepper, celery. 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 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes