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Tomato Catsup

A thick tomato catsup made by boiling tomatoes with spices, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash and cut up the tomatoes, leaving the skins on.

  2. Place the tomatoes in a kettle without water and boil until soft.

  3. Mash the mixture through a fine sieve, discarding seeds and skins.

  4. Add salt and red pepper to the liquid.

Make the ketchup

  1. Combine allspice, mustard seed, cloves, celery seed, cinnamon, and ginger root in a small bag.

  2. Add the spice bag to the kettle.

  3. Add the whole onions to the kettle.

  4. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, and boil until thickened.

  5. Stir in vinegar and sugar.

  6. Continue boiling until thick enough that no water runs from a teaspoonful.

  7. Remove the onions and spice bags.

Bottle and seal

  1. Pour the catsup into jars or bottles that have been washed in boiling water.

  2. Seal or cork the jars while hot.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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
Provide the main body, flavour and thickening pulp of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they simmer in the mixture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent aroma from the spice bag.

The step that matters

Boil until thick enough that no water runs from a teaspoonful. Tomato ketchup thickens only through evaporation. Stopping early leaves excess water, giving a thin sauce that may spoil sooner, while stirring frequently prevents scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, mustard, clove, celery, cinnamon, ginger. 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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