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Sauce

Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made with tomatoes, onions, spices, and Madeira wine.

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

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes and onions

  1. Wash the tomatoes well and slice them into ½-inch thick pieces.

  2. Peel and thinly slice the onions.

  3. In a preserving kettle, combine the tomatoes, onions, and salt, and boil slowly for 3 hours, stirring frequently.

Strain and stand overnight

  1. Mash the mixture through a sieve using a wooden ladle and pour it into a stone jar to stand overnight.

Finish and bottle

  1. The next morning, return the mixture to the preserving kettle, add the spices and wine, and simmer until thick.

  2. Mash again through a sieve with the wooden ladle, then bottle and seal well.

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

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + peppertop 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

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the ketchup and provide its body, acidity and flavor.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and flavor that deepens as they cook down.
Madeira wine
Adds rich, aromatic depth and a fortified sweetness to the sauce.
Black peppercorns
Contribute sharp, aromatic pungency to the finished sauce.
Whole allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that carry through the simmer.

The step that matters

Simmering until thick. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the tomato solids, so the sauce thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, and it may spoil sooner in storage.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, allspice, clove, madeira wine, celery, 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.

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