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Grape Catsup

A sweet and spicy grape preserve made by stewing grapes, straining, and simmering with sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Grape Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew the grapes over low heat until soft.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Add sugar, vinegar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, red pepper, ground cloves, and nutmeg, then mix well and boil until thick.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Grapes
Provide the main fruit body and natural pectin that thickens the ketchup as it cooks down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates, helps give the ketchup its thick body and preserving effect.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps keep the ketchup stable.
Salt
Seasons the ketchup and sharpens the flavours of the fruit and spices.

The step that matters

Boil until thick. Grapes and sugar thicken only as water evaporates during a sustained boil. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce that may spoil sooner, so cook until it coats a spoon.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Grapethe original

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