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Mushroom Catsup

A mushroom-based condiment made by boiling mushroom juice with spices and salt, then straining and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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

Simmer the mixture

  1. Combine mushroom juice, allspice, pepper, cloves, ginger, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for one hour.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

  2. Bottle the strained mushroom catsup for storage.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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

Mushroom juice
Provides the savory, umami-rich liquid base of the ketchup.
Salt
Seasons the ketchup and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture and limiting microbial growth.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor that carries through the long simmer.
Cloves
Contributes strong aromatic warmth that flavors the liquid during boiling.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture for one hour. Sustained boiling extracts the flavor from the spices into the liquid and concentrates it. Under-boiling leaves the seasoning weak, so the spices should be fully infused before straining.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, allspice, pepper, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, allspice, pepper, clove. 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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