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Catsup for Sea Stores

A fermented sauce made from beer, vinegar, anchovies, shallots, spices, and mushroom pieces, boiled, strained, and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Catsup for Sea Stores

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ketchup

  1. Combine beer, vinegar, anchovies, shallots, mace, cloves, black pepper, ginger powder, and mushroom flaps in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reduces to ten pints.

  3. Strain the mixture, then cool it.

Bottle and serve

  1. Bottle the catsup for storage.

  2. Serve with a little butter.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid to add deep savory, umami flavor.
Shallots
Add aromatic sweetness and body that softens during the long boil.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the ketchup and sharpens its flavor.
Mushroom flaps
Contribute earthy, savory depth and body to the reduced liquid.
Beer
Adds malty, bitter notes and liquid that reduces into the ketchup's base.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced to ten pints. Boiling concentrates the flavors and thickens the liquid while evaporating water, which helps the ketchup keep well. Stopping too early leaves it thin and less stable; boiling too hard can scorch the bottom of the pot.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, vinegar, shallot, clove, pepper, ginger, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, vinegar, shallot, clove, pepper, ginger, mushroom. 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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