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 ↓
Mushroom Catsup
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the mushrooms
Cut off the ends of the mushroom stems.
Place them in a deep pan, sprinkling salt over each layer. Let the mushrooms sit for two days.
Strain the juice through a sieve into a preserving kettle.
Spice and boil
For every pint of juice, add 12 cloves, 12 allspice berries, 2-3 pieces of mace, and ½ grated nutmeg. Boil for 15 minutes.
Rest and bottle
Remove from heat and let it stand for 2-3 days.
Pour the liquid gently from the sediment into small bottles using a funnel. Top each bottle with 1 tablespoon of sweet oil.
Cork the bottles tightly. Seal the corks.
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.
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,331 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 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
- Large mushrooms
- Provide the main body and savoury flavour of the ketchup once their juice is extracted.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws liquid out of the mushrooms, creating the juice that becomes the base of the ketchup.
- Cloves
- Add warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the preserved juice.
- Allspice berries
- Contribute warm, peppery aroma that rounds out the spiced flavour.
- Mace
- Adds a delicate, aromatic warmth to the spiced juice.
- Nutmeg
- Adds a sweet, woody aroma to the spiced juice.
The step that matters
Letting the mushrooms sit for two days with salt. Salt draws moisture out of the mushroom cells through osmosis, so the juice forms over time. Too little salt or too short a rest yields weak juice, while the flavour and preservation depend on that extraction.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, clove, allspice, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, clove, allspice, nutmeg. 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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