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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made with tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

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

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut up the tomatoes and boil for 1 hour.

  2. Press the mixture through a colander.

Simmer the ketchup

  1. Add vinegar, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, mustard, white mustard, ground cloves, allspice, celery seed tied in muslin cloth, and chopped onions.

  2. Boil slowly for about 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Forms the body and bulk of the sauce, providing the main flavour and thickness.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and gives the ketchup its tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity and helps the sauce thicken as it reduces.
Onions
Contributes savoury depth and aroma that builds the flavour base.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that complements the tomato and vinegar.

The step that matters

Slow simmer with occasional stirring. Over four hours, the sugars and tomato solids can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Stirring keeps them from sticking and burning, while slow evaporation gradually thickens the sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, mustard, clove, allspice, 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.

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