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Dessert

Mixed Catsup

A fermented condiment made from cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mixed Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle salt over cucumbers and tomatoes.

  2. Let them stand overnight.

  3. Slice onions and bell peppers.

  4. Grind all ingredients together in a sausage grinder.

  5. Squeeze the mixture dry with your hands.

Season and jar

  1. Add ground black pepper and mix well.

  2. Pack the mixture into self-sealing jars, filling them half full.

  3. Top off each jar with pure cider vinegar.

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. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk of the ketchup and a crisp, fresh texture.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body to the mixture.
Onions
Contribute aroma and savory depth.
Bell peppers
Add mild sweetness and vegetable flavor.
Pure cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the ketchup its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Squeeze the mixture dry. Salted vegetables release a lot of liquid overnight. Squeezing out the excess water keeps the ketchup thick rather than thin and watery once it is jarred.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, pepper, cider, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, pepper, cider, 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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