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Drink

Catsup

A spice-infused vinegar condiment made with liquor, pepper, mixed spice, horseradish, ginger, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Press the ingredients in a clean, wet cloth to extract 2 quarts of liquor.

Make the catsup

  1. Add whole pepper, mixed spice, horseradish, and ginger to the liquor.

  2. Boil for 1 hour and skim off any foam.

  3. Add vinegar and let it cool completely.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle the mixture, dividing the spices among the bottles.

  2. Cork the bottles tightly and store them on their side in a cool, dry place for 1 year before using.

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. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Horseradish + gingertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together676 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Liquor
Forms the liquid base of the catsup, carrying the flavour of the other ingredients.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the catsup.
Whole pepper
Provides pungent, warm spice flavour that infuses the liquid during boiling.
Mixed spice
Contributes aromatic warmth that blends into the liquid during boiling.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that mellows with long storage.
Ginger
Adds aromatic, slightly peppery warmth to the liquid.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam while boiling. Foam rises from proteins and impurities released during boiling. Removing it keeps the liquid clear and stops off-flavours from settling into the finished catsup.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, horseradish, 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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