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Currant Catsup

Currant catsup is a sweet and spicy condiment made from stewed currants, sugar, spices, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Currant Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew the currants and sugar in a pot until thick.

  2. Add the cinnamon, cloves, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

  3. Mix well and bottle for use.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Currant + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide the fruit body and natural pectin that helps the ketchup thicken as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the fruit and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharp tang that brightens the fruit flavor and helps keep the ketchup stable.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes.

The step that matters

Stew the currants and sugar until thick. Currants contain pectin, which sets as the mixture cooks down and the water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves the ketchup thin, while cooking too long or too hot can scorch the sugar and fruit.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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